FROM   THE   LIBRARY  OF 
REV.    LOUIS    FITZGERALD    BENSON.   D.  D. 

BEQUEATHED    BY   HIM   TO 

THE   LIBRARY  OF 

PRINCETON  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 


Section  fl^^(::p 


A 


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Z     — 


^^"i  OF  pr;Vc>  , 


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JUL    9    1932 

Afro- American  Folksongs 

A  STUDY 

IN  RACIAL  AND  NATIONAL  MUSIC 

BY  /v/ 

Henry  Edward  Krehbiel 

Author  of 

"Studies  in  the  Wagnerian  Drama,"  "How  to  Listen  to 

Music,"  "Music  and  Manners  in  the  Classical 

Period,"  "Chapters  of  Opera,"  "A  Book 

OF  Operas,"  "The  Pianoforte  and 

ITS  Music,"  etc.,  etc. 


THIRD  EDITION 


G.  SCHIRMER 

NEW  YORK 


Copyright,  1914,  by 

G.   SCEIRMER 

24289 


Printed  in  the  U.  S.  A. 


TO   MY   FRIEND 

HORATIO  W.  PARKER,  Mus.  Doc. 
Professor  of  Music  at  Yale  Universitt 


PREFACE 


This  book  was  written  with  the  purpose  of  bringing  a 
species  of  folksong  into  the  field  of  scientific  observation 
and  presenting  it  as  fit  material  for  artistic  treatment. 
It  is  a  continuation  of  a  branch  of  musical  study  for  which 
the  foundation  was  laid  more  than  a  decade  ago  in  a  series 
of  essays  with  bibliographical  addenda  printed  in  the  New 
York  "Tribune,"  of  which  journal  the  author  has  been  the 
musical  reviewer  for  more  than  thirty  years.  The  general 
subject  of  those  articles  was  folksongs  and  their  relation  to 
national  schools  of  composition.  It  had  come  to  the  writer's 
knowledge  that  the  articles  had  been  clipped  from  the 
newspaper,  placed  in  envelopes  and  indexed  in  several 
public  libraries,  and  many  requests  came  to  him  from  li- 
brarians and  students  that  they  be  republished  in  book- 
form.  This  advice  could  not  be  acted  upon  because  the 
articles  were  mere  outlines,  ground-plans,  suggestions  and 
guides  to  the  larger  work  or  works  which  the  author  hoped 
would  the  be  the  result  of  his  instigation. 

Folksong  literature  has  grown  considerably  since  then, 
especially  in  Europe,  but  the  subject  of  paramount  interest 
to  the  people  of  the  United  States  has  practically  been 
ignored.  The  songs  created  by  the  negroes  while  they 
were  slaves  on  the  plantations  of  the  South  have  cried  out 
in  vain  for  scientific  study,  though  "ragtime"  tunes,  which 
are  their  debased  offspring,  have  seized  upon  the  fancy  of 
the  civilized  world.  This  popularity  may  be  deplorable, 
but  it  serves  at  least  to  prove  that  a  marvellous  potency 
lies  in  the  characteristic  rhythmical  element  of  the  slave 
songs.  Would  not  a  wider  and  truer  knowledge  of  their 
other  characteristics  as  well  lead  to  the  creation  of  a  better 
art  than  that  which  tickles  the  ears  and  stimulates  the  feet 
of  the  pleasure-seekers  of  London,  Paris,  Berlin  and  Vienna 
even  more  than  it  does  those  of  New  York? 

The  charm  of  the  Afro-American  songs  has  been  widely 
recognized,  but  no  musical  savant  has  yet  come  to  analyze 
them.  Their  two  most  obvious  elements  only  have  been 
copied  by  composers  and  dance-makers,  who  have  wished 

[    V    ] 


PREFACE 

to  imitate  them.  These  elements  are  the  rhythmical 
propulsion  which  comes  from  the  initial  syncopation  com- 
mon to  the  bulk  of  them  (the  "snap"  or  "catch"  which  in  an 
exaggerated  form  lies  at  the  basis  of  "ragtime")  and  the 
frequent  use  of  the  five-tone  or  pentatonic  scale.  But 
there  is  much  more  that  is  characteristic  in  this  body  of 
melody,  and  this  "more"  has  been  neglected  because  it  has 
not  been  uncovered  to  the  artistic  world.  There  has  been 
no  study  of  it  outside  of  the  author's  introduction  to  the 
subject  printed  years  ago  and  a  few  comments,  called 
forth  by  transient  phenomena,  in  the  "Tribune"  news- 
paper in  the  course  of  the  last  generation.  This  does  not 
mean  that  the  world  has  kept  silent  on  the  subject.  On 
the  contrary,  there  has  been  anything  but  a  dearth  of 
newspaper  and  platform  talk  about  songs  which  the 
negroes  sang  in  America  when  they  were  slaves,  but  most 
of  it  has  revolved  around  the  questions  whether  or  not 
the  songs  were  original  creations  of  these  native  blacks, 
whether  or  not  they  were  entitled  to  be  called  American 
and  whether  or  not  they  were  worthy  of  consideration  as 
foundation  elements  for  a  school  of  American  composition. 
The  greater  part  of  what  has  been  written  was  the  result 
of  an  agitation  which  followed  Dr.  Antonin  Dvorak's 
efforts  to  direct  the  attention  of  American  composers  to 
the  beauty  and  efficiency  of  the  material  which  these 
melodies  contained  for  treatment  in  the  higher  artistic 
forms.  Dr.  Dvorak's  method  was  eminently  practical; 
he  composed  a  symphony,  string  quartet  and  string  quin- 
tet in  which  he  utilized  characteristic  elements  which  he 
had  discovered  in  the  songs  of  the  negroes  which  had  come 
to  his  notice  while  he  was  a  resident  of  New  York.  To 
the  symphony  he  gave  a  title — "From  the  New  World" — 
which  measurably  disclosed  his  purpose;  concerning  the 
source  of  his  inspiration  for  the  chamber  compositions  he 
said  nothing,  leaving  it  to  be  discovered,  as  it  easily  was, 
from  the  spirit,  or  feeling,  of  the  music  and  the  character 
of  its  melodic  and  rhythmic  idioms.  The  eminent  com- 
poser's aims,  as  well  as  his  deed,  were  widely  misunderstood 
at  the  time,  and,  for  that  matter,  still  are.     They  called 

[     vl     1 


PREFACE 

out  a  clamor  from  one  class  of  critics  which  disclosed  noth- 
ing so  much  as  their  want  of  intelligent  discrimination 
unless  it  was  their  ungenerous  and  ilHberal  attitude  toward 
a  body  of  American  citizens  to  whom  at  the  least  must  be 
credited  the  creation  of  a  species  of  song  in  which  an  un- 
deniably great  composer  had  recognized  artistic  poten- 
tialities thitherto  neglected,  if  not  unsuspected,  in  the  land 
of  its  origin.  While  the  critics  quarrelled,  however,  a 
group  of  American  musicians  acted  on  Dr.  Dvorak's  sug- 
gestion, and  music  in  the  serious,  artistic  forms,  racy  of  the 
soil  from  which  the  slave  songs  had  sprung,  was  produced 
by  George  W.  Chadwick,  Henry  Schoenberg,  Edward  R. 
Kroeger  and  others. 

It  was  thus  that  the  question  of  a  possible  folksong  basis 
for  a  school  of  composition  which  the  world  would  recog- 
nize as  distinctive,  even  national,  was  brought  upon  the 
carpet.  With  that  question  I  am  not  concerned  now.  My 
immediate  concern  is  to  outline  the  course  and  method 
to  be  pursued  in  the  investigations  which  I  have  under- 
taken. Primarily,  the  study  will  be  directed  to  the  music 
of  the  songs  and  an  attempt  be  made  by  comparative 
analysis  to  discover  the  distinctive  idioms  of  that  music, 
trace  their  origins  and  discuss  their  correspondences  with 
characteristic  elements  of  other  folk-melodies,  and  also 
their  differences. 

The  burden  is  to  be  laid  upon  the  music.  The  poetry  of 
the  songs  has  been  discussed  amply  and  well,  never  so 
amply  or  so  well  as  when  they  were  first  brought  to  the 
attention  of  the  world  by  a  group  of  enthusiastic  laborers 
in  the  cause  of  the  freedmen  during  the  War  of  the  Re- 
bellion. Though  foreign  travellers  had  written  enthusias- 
tically about  the  singing  of  the  slaves  on  the  Southern 
plantations  long  before,  and  though  the  so-called  negro 
minstrels  had  provided  an  admired  form  of  entertainment 
based  on  the  songs  and  dances  of  the  blacks  which  won 
unexampled  popularity  far  beyond  the  confines  of  the 
United  States,  the  descriptions  were  vague  and  general, 
the  sophistication  so  great,  that  it  may  be  said  that  really 
nothing  was  done  to  make  the  specific  beauties  of  the  unique 

f     vii     1 


PREFACE 

songs  of  the  plantations  known  until  Miss  McKim  wrote 
a  letter  about  them  to  Dwight's  "Journal  of  Music,"  which 
was  printed  under  the  date  of  November  8,  1862. 

In  August,  1863,  H.  G.  Spaulding  contributed  some  songs 
to  "The  Continental  Monthly,"  together  with  an  interest- 
ing account  of  how  they  were  sung  and  the  influence  which 
they  exerted  upon  the  singers.  In  "The  Atlantic  Monthly" 
for  June,  1867,  Colonel  Thomas  Wentworth  Higginson 
printed  the  texts  of  a  large  number  of  songs  and  accom- 
panied them  with  so  sympathetic  and  yet  keen  an  analysis 
of  their  psychology  and  structure  that  he  left  practically 
nothing  for  his  successors  to  say  on  the  subject.  Booker 
T.  Washington  and  W.  E.  Burghardt  DuBois  have  only 
been  able  to  echo  him  in  strains  of  higher  rhapsody.  Much 
use  was  made  of  these  articles  by  William  Francis  Allen 
in  the  preface  of  the  first  collection  of  the  songs,  entitled 
"Slave  Songs  of  the  United  States,"  published  by  A.  Simp- 
son &  Co.  in  New  York  in  1867.  The  observations  of  these 
writers  and  a  few  others  make  up  practically  the  entire  sum 
of  what  it  is  essential  to  know  about  the  social,  literary  and 
psychological  side  of  the  folksongs  of  the  American  negroes. 
None  of  these  early  collectors  had  more  than  a  smattering 
of  musical  knowledge,  and  none  of  them  attempted  to 
subject  the  melodies  of  the  songs  to  analytical  study. 

Outside  of  the  cursory  and  fragmentary  notices  of  "The 
Tribune's"  music  reviewer  called  out  by  a  few  performances 
of  the  songs  and  the  appearance  of  the  collections  which 
followed  a  popularization  of  the  songs  by  the  singing  of  the 
Jubilee  Singers  of  the  Fisk  University  and  other  choirs  from 
the  schools  established  for  the  higher  education  of  the  eman- 
cipated blacks,  nothing  of  even  a  quasi-scientific  character 
touching  the  melodies  appeared  during  the  last  generation 
until  M.  Julien  Tiersot,  the  distinguished  librarian  of  the 
Paris  Conservatory,  published  a  monograph*  (first  in  the 
Journal  of  the  International  Music  Society,  afterward  sep- 
arately) giving  the  results  of  his  investigations  into  the  folk- 
music  of  Canada  and  the  United  States  made  during  a 

*  "La  Musique  chez  les  Peupks  indigenes  de  TAmerique  du  Nord — fitats- 
Unis  et  Canada."  Paris,  Librairie  Fischbacher;  Leipsic  and  New  York,  Breit- 
kopf  &  Hartel. 

[   vii!    ] 


PREFACE 

visit  to  America  in  the  winter  and   spring  of  1905-1906. 

A  few  months  ago  a  book  entitled  "Musik,  Tanz  und 
Dichtung  bei  den  Kreolen  Amerikas,"  by  Albert  Frie- 
denthal,  was  published  in  Berlin.  M.Tiersot  concerned  him- 
self chiefly  with  the  Indians,  though  he  made  some  keen 
observations  on  the  music  of  the  black  Creoles  of  Louisi- 
ana, and  glanced  also  at  the  slave  songs,  for  which  he 
formed  a  sincere  admiration;  the  German  folklorist  treated 
of  negro  music  only  as  he  found  it  influencing  the  dances 
of  the  people  of  Mexico,  Central  America,  South  America 
and  the  West  Indies. 

The  writer  of  this  book,  therefore,  had  to  do  the  work  of 
a  pioneer,  and  as  such  will  be  satisfied  if  he  shall  succeed  in 
making  a  clearing  in  which  successors  abler  than  he  shall 
work  hereafter. 

The  scope  of  my  inquiry  and  the  method  which  I  have 
pursued  may  be  set  forth  as  follows: 

1.  First  of  all  it  shall  be  detennined  what  are  folksongs,  and  whether 
or  not  the  songs  in  question  conform  to  a  scientific  definition  in  respect  of 
their  origin,  their  melodic  and  rhythmical  characteristics  and  their  psychology. 

2.  The  question,  *'Are  they  American?"  shall  be  answered. 

3.  Their  intervallic,  rhythmical  and  structural  elements  will  be  inquired 
into  and  an  effort  be  made  to  show  that,  while  their  combination  into  songs 
took  place  in  this  country,  the  essential  elements  came  from  Africa;  in  other 
words,  that,  while  some  of  the  material  is  foreign,  the  product  is  native;  and, 
if  native,  then  American. 

4.  An  effort  will  be  made  to  disprove  the  theory  which  has  been  frequently 
advanced  that  the  songs  are  not  original  creations  of  the  slaves,  but  only  the 
fruit  of  the  negro's  innate  faculty  for  imitation.  It  will  be  shown  that  some 
of  the  melodies  have  peculiarities  of  scale  and  structure  which  could  not 
possibly  have  been  copied  from  the  music  which  the  blacks  were  privileged 
to  hear  on  the  plantations  or  anywhere  else  during  the  period  of  slavery. 
Correspondence  will  be  disclosed,  however,  between  these  peculiarities  and 
elements  observed  by  travellers  in  African  countries. 

5.  This  will  necessitate  an  excursion  into  the  field  of  primitive  African 
music  and  also  into  the  philosophy  underlying  the  conservation  of  savage 
music.  Does  it  follow  that,  because  the  American  negroes  have  forgotten 
the  language  of  their  savage  ancestors,  they  have  also  forgotten  all  of  their 
music?  May  relics  of  that  music  not  remain  in  a  subconscious  memory? 

6.  The  influences  of  the  music  of  the  dominant  peoples  with  whom  the 
slaves  were  brought  into  contact  upon  the  rude  art  of  the  latter  will  have  to 
be  looked  into  and  also  the  reciprocal  effect  upon  each  other;  and  thus  the 
character  and  nature  of  the  hybrid  art  found  in  the  Creole  songs  and  dances 
of  Louisiana  will  be  disclosed. 

To  make  the  exposition  and  arrangement  plain,  I  shall 
illustrate  them  by  musical  examples.     African  music  will 

[     ix     ] 


PREFACE 

be  brought  forward  to  show  the  sources  of  idioms  which 
have  come  over  into  the  folksongs  created  by  negroes  in 
America;  and  the  effect  of  these  idioms  will  be  demonstrated 
by  specimens  of  song  collected  in  the  former  slave  States, 
the  Bahamas  and  Martinique.  Though  for  scientific 
reasons  I  should  have  preferred  to  present  the  melodies 
of  these  songs  without  embellishment  of  any  sort,  I  have 
yielded  to  a  desire  to  make  their  peculiar  beauty  and  use- 
fulness known  to  a  wide  circle  of  amateurs,  and  presented 
them  In  arrangements  suitable  for  performance  under  ar- 
tistic conditions. 

For  these  arrangements  I  am  deeply  beholden  to  Henry 
T.  Burleigh,  Arthur  Mees,  Henry  Holden  Huss  and  John 
A.  Van  Broekhoven.  An  obligation  of  gratitude  is  also 
acknowledged  to  Mr.  Ogden  Mills  Reid,  Editor  of  "The 
New  York  Tribune,"  for  his  consent  to  the  reprinting  of  the 
essays ;  to  Mr.  George  W.  Cable  and  The  Century  Company 
for  permission  to  use  some  of  the  material  in  two  of  the 
former's  essays  on  Creole  Songs  and  Dances  published  in 
1886  in  "The  Century  Magazine;"  and  to  Professor 
Charles  L.  Edwards,  the  American  Folk-Lore  Society,  Miss 
Emily  Hallowell  and  Harper  &  Brothers  for  like  privileges. 

H.  E.  Krehbiel. 
Blue  Hill,  Me. 
Summer  of  1913. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Preface  v 

Chapter  I.    Folksongs  in  General  1 

The  Characteristics  of  Folksongs. — Folksongs  De- 
fined.— Creative  Influences. — Folksong  and  Suffering. 
— Modes,  Rhythms  and  Scales.- — Russian  and  Finnish 
Music. — Persistency  of  Type. — Music  and  Racial  Ties. 
— Britons  and  Bretons. 

Chapter  U.    Songs  of  the  American  Slaves  11 

Originality  of  the  Afro-American  Folksongs. — Dr. 
Wallaschek  and  His  Contention. — Extent  of  the  Imi- 
tation in  the  Songs. — Allusions  to  Slavery. — How  the 
Songs  Grew. — Are  They  Entitled  to  be  Called  Ameri- 
can.— The  Negro  in  American  History. 

Chapter  III.    Religious  Character  of  the  Songs  26 

The  Paucity  of  Secular  Songs  among  the  Slaves. — 
Campmeetings,  "Spirituals"  and  "Shouts." — Work- 
Songs  of  the  Fields  and  Rivers. — Lafcadio  Hearn  and 
Negro  Music. — African  Relics  and  Voodoo  Ceremonies. 

Chapter  IV.    Modal  Characteristics  of  the  Songs  42 

An  Analysis  of  Half  a  Thousand  Negro  Songs. — 
Division  as  to  Modes. — Overwhelming  Prevalence  of 
Major. — Psychology  of  the  Phenomenon. — Music  as  a 
Stimulus  to  Work. — Songsof  the  Fieldhands  and  Rowers. 

Chapter  V.    Music  Among  the  Africans  56 

The  Many  and  Varied  Kinds  of  African  Slaves. — 
Not  All  Negroes. — Their  Aptitude  and  Love  for  Music. 
— Knowledge  and  Use  of  Harmony. — Dahomans  at 
Chicago. — Rhythm  and  Drumming. — African  Instru- 
ments. 

Chapter  VI.    Variations  from  the  Major  Scale  70 

Peculiarities  of  Negro  Singing. — Vagueness  of  Pitch 
in  Certain  Intervals. — Fractional  Tones  in  Primitive 
Music. — The  Pentatonic  Scale. — The  Flat  Seventh. — 
Harmonization  of  Negro  Melodies. 

Chapter  VII.  Minor  Variations  and  Characteristic  Rh3rthms      83 

Vagaries  in  the  Minor  Scale. — The  Sharp  Sixth. — 
Orientalism. — The  "Scotch"  Snap. — A  Note  on  the 
Tango  Dance. — Even  and  Uneven  Measures. — Ad- 
justing Words  and  Music. 

[  xi  ] 


CONTENTS— Continued 

Chapter  VIII.    Structural  Features  of  the  Poems.    Funeral 
Music  100 

Improvization. — Solo  and  Choral  Refrain. — Strange 
Funeral  Customs. — Their  Savage  Prototypes. — Mes- 
sages to  the  Dead. — Graveyard  Songs  of  the  American 
Slaves. 

Chapter  IX.    Dances  of  the  American  Negroes  112 

Creole  Music. — The  Effect  of  Spanish  Influences. — 
Obscenity  of  Native  African  Dances. — Relics  in  the 
Antilles. — The  Habanera. — Dance-Tunes  from  Mar- 
tinique. 

Chapter  X.    Songs  of  the  Black  Creoles  127 

The  Language  of  the  Afro-American  Folksongs. — 
Phonetic  Changes  in  English. — Grammar  of  the 
Creole  Patois. — Making  French  Compact  and  Musi- 
cal.— Dr.  Mercier's  Pamphlet. — Creole  Love-Songs. 

Chapter  XI.    Satirical  Songs  of  the  Creoles  140 

A  Classification  of  Slave  Songs. — The  Use  of  Music 
in  Satire. — African  Minstrels. — The  Carnival  in  Mar- 
tinique.— West  Indian  Pillards. — Old  Boscoyo's  Song 
in  New  Orleans. — Conclusion. — An  American  School 
of  Composition. 

Appendix  of  Ten  Characteristic  Songs  157 

Index  171 


I    xii    1 


CHAPTER  I 
FOLKSONGS    IN   GENERAL 


The  Characteristics  of   Folksongs — Folksongs   De- 
fined— Creative  Influences — Folksong  and 
Suffering — Modes,   Rhythms    and   Scales — 
Russian  and  Finnish  Music — Persistency 
of  Type — Music  and  Racial  Ties — 
Britons  and  Bretons 


The  purpose  of  this  book  is  to  study  the  origin  and  nature 
of  what  its  title  calls  Afro-American  Folksongs.  To  fore- 
fend,  as  far  as  it  is  possible  to  do  so,  against  misconceptions 
it  will  be  well  to  have  an  understanding  at  the  outset  as 
to  terms  and  aims.  It  is  essential,  not  only  to  an  under- 
standing of  the  argument  but  also  to  a  necessary  limitation 
of  the  scope  of  the  investigation,  that  the  term  "folksong" 
be  defined.  The  definition  must  not  include  too  much 
lest,  at  the  last,  it  prove  to  compass  too  little.  So  as  far  as 
possible  the  method  of  presentation  must  be  rational  and 
scientific  rather  than  rhetorical  and  sentimental,  and  the 
argument  be  directed  straight  and  unswervingly  toward 
the  establishment  of  facts  concerning  a  single  and  distinct 
body  of  song,  regardless  of  any  other  body  even  though  the 
latter  be  closely  related  or  actually  derived  from  the  former. 

It  is  very  essential  that  the  word  folksong  be  understood 
as  having  as  distinctive  a  meaning  as  "folklore,"  "myth," 
"legend"  or  ^'MdrcherC^ — which  last  word,  for  the  sake  of 
accuracy,  English  folklorists  have  been  forced  to  borrow 
from  the  Germans.  It  will  also  be  necessary  in  this  ex- 
position to  appeal  to  the  Germans  to  enforce  a  distinction 
which  is  ignored  or  set  aside  by  the  majority  of  English 
writers  on  folksong — popular  writers,  that  is.  The  Germans 
who  write  accurately  on  the  subject  call  what  I  would 
have  understood  to  be  folksong  das  Volkslied;  for  a  larger 
body  of  song,  which  has  community  of  characteristics  with 
the  folksong  but  is  not  of  it,  they  have  the  term  volksthum- 

I  1  ] 


AFRO-AMERICAN   FOLKSONGS 

liches  Lied.  This  body  of  song  embraces  all  vocal  com- 
positions which  have  come  to  be  so  fondly  liked,  loved, 
admired  by  the  people  that  they  have  become  a  native 
and  naive  popular  utterance.  So  generous,  indeed,  is  the 
term  that  it  embraces  not  only  the  simple  songs  based  on 
genuine  folksong  texts  which  musicians  have  set  to  music, 
and  the  large  number  of  artistic  compositions  which  imi- 
tate the  sentiment  and  structure  of  folksongs,  but  also 
many  lyrics  made  with  conscious  art  by  eminent  composers. 
In  the  family  circles  of  Germany  and  at  popular  gatherings 
one  may  hear  not  only  Silcher's  setting  of  "Zu  Strassburg 
auf  der  Schanz"  (which  is  music  set  by  an  artist  to  a 
folkpoem),  but  the  same  composer's  melody  to  "Ich  weiss 
nicht,  was  soil  es  bedeuten"  (an  artificial  folkpoem  by 
Heine),  Weber's  "Wir  winden  dir  den  Jungfernkranz"  and 
Schubert's  "Am  Brunnen  vor  dem  Thore"  (which  are  ar- 
tistic products  in  conception  and  execution).  The  English 
term  "popular  song"  might  well  and  properly  be  used  as 
a  synonym  for  the  German  term  and  be  applied  to  the 
same  kind  of  songs  in  English  without  prejudice  to  the 
scientific  "folksong,"  were  it  not  for  its  degraded  and  de- 
grading association  with  the  vulgar  music  hall  ditties. 
These  ditties,  which  a  wise  Providence  has  cursed  with  the 
blessing  of  translentness,  have  companionship  in  this  study 
with  the  so-called  "coon  songs"  and  "ragtime  tunes"  in 
which  some  of  the  elements  of  the  Afro-American  folksongs 
are  employed. 

Only  because  I  cannot  see  how  a  paraphrase  would  im- 
prove it  in  respect  of  sententiousness,  clearness  or  compre- 
hensiveness, I  make  use  of  a  definition  which  I  wrote  a 
decade  ago  for  "The  Musical  Guide" — a  dictionary  of 
terms  and  much  else  edited  by  Rupert  Hughes  and  pub- 
lished by  McClure,  Phillips  &  Co.: 

Folksong  is  not  popular  song  in  the  sense  in  which  the  word  is  most  fre- 
quently used,  but  the  song  of  the  folk;  not  only  the  song  admired  of  the  people 
but,  in  a  strict  sense,  the  song  created  by  the  people.  It  is  a  body  of  poe^  and 
music  which  has  come  into  existence  without  the  influence  of  conscious  art, 
as  a  spontaneous  utterance,  filled  with  characteristic  expression  of  the  feelings 
of  a  people.  Such  songs  are  marked  by  certain  peculiarities  of  rhythm,  form 
and  melody  which  are  traceable,  more  or  less  clearly,  to  racial  (or  national) 
temperament,  modes  of  life,  climatic  and  political  conditions,  geographical 

[     2     ] 


FOLKSONGS  IN  GENERAL 

environment  and  language.   Some  of  these  elements,  the  spiritual,  are  elusive, 
but  others  can  be  determined  and  classified. 

Though  the  present  purposes  are  almost  purely  musical, 
it  will  be  well  to  consider  that  in  the  folksongs  of  the  world 
there  lies  a  body  of  evidence  of  great  value  in  the  study 
of  many  things  which  enter  into  the  science  of  ethnology, 
such  as  racial  relations,  primitive  modes  of  thought, 
ancient  customs  and  ancient  religions.  On  this  point 
something  shall  be  said  later. 

Folksongs  are  echoes  of  the  heart-beats  of  the  vast  folk, 
and  in  them  are  preserved  feelings,  beliefs  and  habits  of 
vast  antiquity.  Not  only  in  the  words,  which  have  almost 
monopolized  folksong  study  thus  far,  but  also  in  music,  and 
perhaps  more  truthfully  in  the  music  than  in  the  words. 
Music  cannot  lie,  for  the  reason  that  the  things  which  are 
at  its  base,  the  things  without  which  it  could  not  be,  are  un- 
conscious, unvolitional  human  products.  We  act  on  a 
recognition  of  this  fact  when  we  judge  of  the  feelings  of 
one  with  whom  we  are  conversing  not  so  much  by  what  he 
says  to  us  as  by  the  manner  in  which  he  says  it.  The  feel- 
ings which  sway  him  publish  themselves  in  the  pitch, 
dynamic  intensity  and  timbre  of  his  voice.  Try  as  we 
may,  if  we  are  powerfully  moved  we  cannot  conceal  the 
fact  so  we  open  our  mouths  for  utterance.  Involuntarily 
the  muscles  of  the  vocal  organs  contract  or  relax  in  obedi- 
ence to  an  emotional  stimulus,  and  the  drama  of  feeling 
playing  on  the  hidden  stage  of  our  hearts  is  betrayed  by 
the  tones  which  we  utter.  These  tones,  without  purpose 
on  our  part,  have  become  endowed  with  the  qualities 
of  gravity  and  acuteness  (pitch),  loudness  and  softness 
(dynamics),  and  emotional  color  (timbre),  and  out  of  the 
union  and  modulation  of  these  elements  comes  expressive 
melody.  Herbert  Spencer  has  formulated  the  law:  **Feel- 
ings  are  muscular  stimuli"  and  **Variations  of  voice  are  the 
physiological  results  of  variations  of  feeling."  In  this  lies 
the  simple  explanation  of  the  inherent  truthfulness  and 
expressiveness  of  the  music  which  a  folk  creates  for  itself. 

"The  folksong  composes  itself"   {Das    Volkslied  dichtet 
sick  selbst),  said  Grimm.    This  is  true  despite  the  obvious 

[     3     ] 


AFRO-AMERICAN   FOLKSONGS 

fact  that  every  folksong  must  once  have  been  the  utterance 
of  an  individual.  What  is  meant  by  the  axiom  is  that  the 
creator  of  the  folksong  is  an  unindividualized  representative 
of  his  people,  himself  a  folk-product.  His  idioms  are  taken 
off  the  tongue  of  the  people;  his  subjects  are  the  thmgs 
which  make  for  the  joy  and  sorrow  of  the  people,  and  once 
his  song  is  gone  out  into  the  world  his  identity  as  its  creator 
is  swallowed  up  in  that  of  the  people.  Not  only  is  his 
name  forgotten,  but  his  song  enters  at  once  upon  a  series  of 
transformations,  which  (such  is  the  puissant  genius  of  the 
people)  adapt  it  to  varying  circumstances  of  time  and 
place  without  loss  to  its  vital  loveliness.  The  creator  of  a 
folksong  as  an  individual  is  a  passing  phenomenon — like 
a  wave  of  the  sea.  His  potentiality  is  racial  or  national, 
not  personal,  and  for  that  reason  it  is  enduring,  not  ephe- 
meral. As  a  necessary  corollary  it  follows  that  the  music 
of  the  folksong  reflects  the  inner  life  of  the  people  that 
gave  it  birth,  and  that  its  characteristics,  like  the  people's 
physical  and  mental  habits,  occupations,  methods  and 
feelings  are  the  product  of  environment,  as  set  forth  in  the 
definition. 

If  Herbert  Spencer's  physiological  analysis  of  the  origin 
of  melody  is  correct,  the  finest,  because  the  truest,  the 
most  intimate,  folk-music  is  that  provoked  by  sufi'ering. 
The  popular  mind  does  not  always  think  so  of  music.  Its 
attitude  is  reflected  in  the  phrase:  "Oh,  I'm  so  happy  I 
could  sing  all  day!"  But  do  we  sing  when  we  are  happy? 
Song,  it  is  true,  is  a  natural  expression  of  the  care-free  and 
light-hearted;  but  it  is  oftener  an  expression  of  a  superficial 
than  a  profound  feeling.  We  leap,  run,  toss  our  arms, 
indulge  in  physical  action  when  in  an  ecstasy  of  joy;  in 
sorrow  we  sit  motionless,  but,  oftener  than  we  are  our- 
selves conscious  of  the  fact,  we  seek  comfort  in  song.  In 
the  popular  nomenclature  of  music  the  symbols  of  gayety 
and  gravity  are  the  major  and  minor  moods.  It  is  a 
broad  characterization,  and  not  strictly  correct  from  a 
scientific  point  of  view;  but  it  serves  to  point  a  general 
rule,  the  exceptions  to  which  (the  Afro-American  folk- 
songs form  one  of  them)  invite  interesting  speculation. 

[    4     ] 


FOLKSONGS  IN  GENERAL 

Comparative  analysis  of  the  folksongs  of  widely  distri- 
buted countries  has  shown  that  some  peoples  are  predis- 
posed toward  the  minor  mode,  and  in  some  cases  explana- 
tions of  the  fact  can  be  found  in  the  geographical,  climatic 
or  political  conditions  under  which  these  peoples  have 
lived  in  the  past  or  are  living  now.  As  a  general  rule,  it 
will  be  found  that  the  peoples  of  high  latitudes  use  the 
minor  mode  rather  than  the  major.  A  study  of  one 
hundred  songs  from  every  one  of  twenty-two  countries 
made  by  Carl  Engel,^  discloses  that  of  the  six  most  pre- 
dominantly minor  countries  of  Europe  five  were  the  most 
northern  ones,  his  figures  being  as  follows: 

Major  Minor       Mixed 

Sweden 14  80  6 

Russia 35  52  13 

Norway 40  56  4 

Wallachia 40  52  8 

Denmark 47  52  1 

Finland 58  50  2 

Melancholy  is  thus  seen  to  be  the  characteristic  note 
of  Scandinavian  music,  which  reflects  the  gloom  of  the 
fjords  and  forests  and  fearful  winters  of  the  northern 
peninsula,  where  nature  makes  human  life  a  struggle  and 
death  an  ever-present  though  not  necessarily  terrifying 
contemplation. 

That  geographical  and  climatic  conditions  are  not  the 
only  determining  factors  in  the  choice  of  modes  is  evident, 
however,  from  the  case  of  Russia,  which  extends  over 
nearly  30  degrees  of  latitude  and  has  so  great  a  variety  of 
climate  that  the  statement  that  the  mean  temperature 
varies  from  32  degrees  Fahrenheit  at  Archangel  to  58  de- 
grees at  Kutais  in  the  Caucasus,  conveys  only  an  imperfect 
notion  of  the  climatic  variability  of  the  country.  Yet 
the  minor  mode  is  dominant  even  in  the  Ukraine. 

If  an  attempt  were  made,  therefore,  to  divide  Europe 
into  major  and  minor  by  drawing  a  line  across  the  map 
from  west  to  east  along  the  parallel  of  the  50th  degree  of 
latitude  the  rule  would  become  inoperative  as  soon  as  the 
Russian  border  was  reached.  Thence  the  isomodal  line 
would  take  a  sharp  southward  trend  of  no  less  than  15 

^  See  his  "Introduction  to  the  Study  of  National  Music.** 

[     5     ] 


AFRO-AMERICAN   FOLKSONGS 

degrees.  All  Russia  is  minor;  and  Russian  folksong, 
I  am  prone  to  think,  is  the  most  moving  and  beautiful 
folk-music  in  the  world.  Other  influences  than  the  ordinary- 
are  therefore  at  work  here,  and  their  discovery  need  not 
detain  the  reader^s  mind  long.  Suffering  is  suffering, 
whether  it  be  physical  or  spiritual,  whether  it  spring  from 
the  unfriendliness  of  nature  or  the  harshness  of  political 
and  social  conditions. 

While  Russian  folksong  is  thus  weighted  with  sorrow, 
Russian  folkdance  is  singularly  energetic  and  boisterous. 
This  would  seem  to  present  a  paradox,  but  the  reason 
becomes  plain  when  it  is  remembered  that  a  measured  and 
decorous  mode  of  popular  amusement  is  the  normal  ex- 
pression of  equable  popular  life,  while  wild  and  desperate 
gayety  is  frequently  the  reaction  from  suffering.  There 
is  a  gayety  of  despair  as  well  as  of  contentment  and  happi- 
ness. Read  this  from  Dr.  Norman  McLeod's  "Note 
Book"  :"My  father  once  saw  some  emigrants  from  Lochaber 
dancing  on  the  deck  of  an  emigrant  ship  and  weeping  their 
eyes  out!  This  feeling  is  the  mother  of  Irish  music.  It 
expresses  the  struggle  of  a  buoyant,  merry  heart  to  get 
quit  of  thoughts  that  often  lie  too  deep  for  tears.  It  is  the 
music  of  an  oppressed,  conquered,  but  deeply  feeling,  im- 
pressible, fanciful  and  generous  people.  It  is  for  the  harp 
in  Tara's  halls!" 

The  rhythms  of  folksongs  may  be  said  to  be  primarily 
the  product  of  folkdances,  but  as  these,  as  a  rule,  are  in- 
spired by  the  songs  which  are  sung  for  their  regulation, 
it  follows  that  there  is  also  a  verbal  basis  for  rhythms. 
Whether  or  not  this  is  true  of  the  rhythmical  elements 
which  have  entered  into  Afro-American  folksongs  cannot 
be  said,  for  want  of  knowledge  of  the  languages  spoken  by 
the  peoples  (not  people,  for  they  were  many  and  of  many 
kinds)  who  were  brought  from  Africa  to  America  as  slaves. 
An  analogy  for  the  "snap,"  which  is  the  most  pervasive 
element  in  the  music  which  came  from  the  Southern  plan- 
tations (the  idiom  which  has  been  degraded  into  "rag- 
time"), is  found  in  the  folk-music  of  the  Magyars  of  Hun- 
gary; and  there  it  is  indubitably  a  product  of  the  poems. 

[     6     ] 


FOLKSONGS  IN  GENERAL 

Intervallic  peculiarities  are  more  difficult  to  explain  than 
rhythmic,  and  are  in  greater  likelihood  survivals  of  primi- 
tive elements.  Despite  its  widespread  use,  the  diatonic 
scale  is  an  artistic  or  scientific  evolution,  not  an  inspiration 
or  a  discovery  in  the  natural  world  of  sound;  and  though 
it  may  have  existed  in  primitive  music  before  it  became  the 
basis  of  an  art,  there  was  no  uniformity  in  its  use.  The 
most  idiomatic  music  of  the  Finns,  who  are  an  older  race 
in  the  northern  European  peninsula  than  any  of  the  Ger- 
manic tribes  which  are  their  rulers,  is  confined  to  the  first 
five  tones  of  the  minor  scale;  old  Irish  and  Scotch  songs 
share  the  familiar  pentatonic  scale  (by  which  I  mean  the 
modern  diatonic  series  omitting  the  fourth  and  seventh 
steps)  with  the  popular  music  of  China,  Japan,  Siam  and 
other  countries.  It  is  of  frequent  occurrence  in  the  melodies 
of  the  American  negroes,  and  found  not  infrequently  in 
those  of  North  American  Indians;  it  is  probably  the  oldest 
tonal  system  in  the  world  and  the  most  widely  dispersed. 

Cesar  Cui  remarks  the  prevalence  in  Russia  of  two 
major  scales,  one  without  the  fourth  and  the  other  without 
the  third  and  seventh.  Hungarian  melodies  employ  largely 
the  interval  called  an  augmented,  or  superfluous,  second, 
which  is  composed  of  three  semitones.  The  Magyars  are 
Scythians  and  racially  related  to  the  Finns  and  Turks,  and 
not  to  their  neighbors,  the  Poles  and  Russians;  yet  the 
same  peculiarity  is  found  in  Slavic  music — in  the  songs 
of  the  Serbs,  Bulgarians,  Montenegrins  and  all  the  other 
mixed  peoples  that  inhabit  the  Balkan  Peninsula.  The 
idiom  is  Oriental  and  a  marked  feature  of  the  popular 
and  synagogal  music  of  the  Jews. 

Facts  like  these  indicate  the  possibility  of  employing 
folksong  as  an  aid  in  the  determination  of  ethnological  and 
ethnographical  questions;  for  its  elements  have  a  marvellous 
tenacity  of  life.  Let  this  be  remembered  when  the  specific 
study  of  American  folksong  is  attempted.  The  persistency 
of  a  type  of  song  in  spite  of  a  change  of  environment  of 
sufficient  influence  to  modify  the  civilization  of  a  people 
has  a  convincing  illustration  in  Finland.  Though  the  Finns 
have   mixed   with   their  Germanic    neighbors    for   many 

[     7     ] 


AFRO-AMERICAN   FOLKSONGS 

centuries,  there  was  originally  no  affinity  of  race  between 
them  and  their  conquerors.  Their  origin  is  in  doubt,  but 
it  is  supposed  that  they  are  Mongols  and  therefore  relatives 
of  the  Magyars.  The  influence  of  the  Swedes  upon  their 
culture  began  in  the  twelfth  century,  when  Christianity 
was  forced  upon  them,  and  it  has  never  ceased,  though 
Sweden  was  compelled  by  the  allied  powers  to  cede  Finland 
to  Russia  in  1809.  Now  Russia,  though  she  signed  a  solemn 
pact  to  permit  the  liberty  of  language,  education  and 
religion  to  the  Finns,  is  engaged  in  stamping  out  the  last 
vestiges  of  nationalism  in  the  country  so  beautifully  called 
Suomi  by  its  people. 

The  active  cultivation  of  music  as  an  art  in  the  modern 
sense  began  in  Finland  toward  the  close  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  and  the  composers,  directors  and  teachers  were 
either  Germans  or  Scandinavians  educated  in  Germany. 
The  artistic  music  of  the  Finns,  therefore,  is  identified  as 
closely  as  possible  with  that  of  the  Scandinavian  people, 
though  it  has  of  late  received  something  of  a  Russian  im- 
press; but  the  vigor  and  power  of  primitive  influences  is 
attested  by  the  unmistakable  elements  in  the  Finnish 
folksongs.  The  ancient  Finns  had  the  Northern  love  for 
music,  and  their  legendary  Orpheus  was  even  a  more 
picturesque  and  potent  theurgist  than  the  Greek.  His 
name  was  Wainamoinen,  and  when  he 

— tuned  his  lyre  with  pleasing  woe, 
Rivers  forgot  to  run,  and  winds  to  blow; 
While  listening  forests  covered,  as  he  played, 
The  soft  musician  in  a  moving  shade. 

To  Wainamoinen  was  attributed  the  invention  of  the 
kantele,  a  harp  which  originally  had  five  strings  tuned  to 
the  notes  which,  as  has  been  said,  are  the  basis  of  the 
Finnish  songs,  especially  those  called  runo  songs,  which  are 
still  sung.  The  five-four  time  which  modern  composers  are 
now  afl"ecting  (as  is  seen  in  the  second  movement  of 
Tschaikowsky's  "Pathetic"  symphony)  is  an  element  of 
the  meter  of  the  national  Finnish  epic,  the  "Kalevala," 
whence  Longfellow  borrowed  it  for  his  American  epic, 
"Hiawatha."    It,  too,  is  found  in  many  runo  songs. 

[      8      ] 


FOLKSONGS  IN  GENERAL 

Music  IS  a  marvellous  conservator.  One  reason  of  this 
IS  that  it  is  the  most  efficient  of  all  memory-helps.  Another 
is  that  among  primitive  peoples  all  over  the  world  music 
became  associated  with  religious  worship  at  so  early  a 
period  in  the  development  of  religion  that  it  acquired  even 
a  greater  sanctity  than  words  or  eucharistic  posturing. 
So  the  early  secular  song,  as  well  as  the  early  sacred,  is 
sometimes  preserved  long  after  its  meaning  is  forgotten. 
In  this  particular,  too,  folksong  becomes  an  adjunct  to 
ethnology.  A  striking  story  is  told  of  how  in  the  middle 
of  the  eighteenth  century  a  folksong  established  fraternal 
relations  between  two  peoples  who  had  forgotten  for  cen- 
turies that  they  were  of  one  blood.  The  tale  comes  from 
a  French  book,^  but  is  thus  related  in  an  essay  on  *'Some 
Breton  Folksongs,"  published  by  Theodore  Bacon  in  "The 
Atlantic  Monthly"  for  November,  1892: 

In  September,  1758,  an  English  force  effected  a  descent 
upon  the  Breton  coast,  at  Saint-Cast.  A  company  of 
Lower  Bretons,  from  the  neighborhood  of  Treguire  and 
Saint-Pol  de  Leon,  was  marching  against  a  detachment 
of  Welsh  mountaineers,  which  was  coming  briskly  forward 
singing  a  national  air,  when  all  at  once  the  Bretons  of  the 
French  army  stopped  short  in  amazement.  The  air  their 
enemies  were  singing  was  one  which  every  day  may  be 
heard  sounding  over  the  hearths  of  Brittany.  "Electrified," 
says  the  historian,  grandson  himself  of  an  eyewitness, 
"by  accents  which  spoke  to  their  hearts,  they  gave  way  to 
a  sudden  enthusiasm,  and  joined  in  the  same  patriotic 
refrain.  The  Welsh,  in  their  turn,  stood  motionless  in  their 
ranks.  On  both  sides  officers  gave  the  command  to  fire; 
but  it  was  in  the  same  language,  and  the  soldiers  stood  as 
if  petrified.  This  hesitation  continued,  however,  but  a 
moment:  a  common  emotion  was  too  strong  for  discipline; 
the  weapons  fell  from  their  hands,  and  the  descendants 
from  the  ancient  Celts  renewed  upon  the  battlefield  the 
fraternal  ties  which  had  formerly  united  their  fathers." 

M.  Th.  Hersart  de  la  Villemarque,  in  his  "Barzaz- 
Breiz,"  a  collection  of  Breton  folksongs,  prints  two  ballads, 

1  "Combat  de  Saint-Cast,  par  M.  de  Saint-Pern  Couelan,"  1836. 

[     9     ] 


AFRO-AMERICAN   FOLKSONGS 

in  one  of  which  the  battle  of  Saint-Cast  is  celebrated,  to- 
gether with  two  other  repulses  of  English  invaders  of  the 
Breton  coast  (at  Camaret,  in  i486,  and  Guidel,  in  1694). 
Concerning  the  encounter  at  Saint-Cast  Villemarque  ad- 
vances the  theory  that  the  singers  were  the  French  sol- 
diers, and  that  the  reason  why  the  Welshmen  stopped  in 
amazement  was  that  they  suspected  treachery  when  they 
heard  their  own  song.  The  point  is  of  little  consequence, 
but  not  so  the  melody  which  Villemarque  prints  as  that  to 
which  the  old  ballad  is  sung.  This,  as  it  appears  in  "Bar- 
zaz-Breiz,"  is,  note  for  note,  the  Welsh  tune  known  as 
'^Captain  Morgan's  March."  The  same  melody  is  sung 
to  another  ballad  describing  the  siege  of  Guingamp,  which 
took  place  in  1488.  Now,  according  to  Welsh  legend,  the 
Morgan  whose  name  is  preserved  in  the  ancient  Rhyfel- 
gyrch  Cadpen  Morgan  was  "Captain  of  the  Glamorganshire 
men,  about  the  year  1294,  who  gallantly  defended  his 
country  from  the  incursion  of  the  Saxons  and  who  dis- 
possessed the  Earl  of  Gloucester  of  those  lands  which  had 
formerly  been  taken  from  Morgan's  forefathers."  If  the 
air  is  as  old  as  that  it  may  well  be  older  still,  and,  indeed, 
may  have  been  carried  into  ancient  Armorica  by  the  immi- 
grants from  Great  Britain  who  crossed  the  Channel  in 
large  numbers  in  the  fifth  and  sixth  centuries.  Other  relics 
of  their  earlier  home  besides  those  of  language  survive 
among  the  people  of  lower  Brittany.  Had  the  soldiers 
at  Saint-Cast  sat  down  together  and  regaled  each  other 
with  hero  legend  and  fairy  tale  they  would  have  found 
that  Arthur  and  Merlin  and  the  korrigan  (little  fairies) 
were  their  common  glory  and  delight.  "King  Arthur  is 
not  dead!"  may  be  heard  in  Brittany  to-day  as  often  as  in 
Cornwall.  Moreover,  the  Welsh  song  which  is  sung  to  the 
tune  of  "Captain  Morgan's  March"  and  the  Breton  ballad 
*'Emgann  Sant-Kast"^  have  one  vigorous  sentiment  in 
common:  **Cursed  be  the  gaxonl" 

^  See  Appendix. 


[  10  I 


CHAPTER  II 
SONGS  OF  THE  AMERICAN   SLAVES 


Originality     of     the    Afro-American     Folksongs  — 

Dr.   Wallaschek    and  his   Contention — Extent 

of  Imitations  in  the  Songs — Allusions 

TO    Slavery — How    the    Songs    Grew — 

Are    They   Entitled   to   be  Called 

American  ? — The    Negro     in 

American  History. 


It  would  never  have  occurred  to  me  to  undertake  to 
prove  the  existence  of  genuine  folksongs  in  America,  and 
those  the  songs  which  were  created  by  the  black  slaves  of 
the  Southern  States,  if  the  fact  of  such  existence  had  not 
been  denied  by  at  least  one  writer  who  has  affected  the 
scientific  manner,  and  had  it  not  become  the  habit  of  a  cer- 
tain class  of  writers  in  this  country,  while  conceding  the 
interesting  character  of  the  songs,  to  refuse  them  the  right 
to  be  called  American.  A  foolish  pride  on  the  part  of  one 
class  of  Americans  of  more  or  less  remote  English  ancestry, 
and  a  more  easily  understood  and  more  pardonable  pre- 
judice on  the  part  of  former  slaveholders  and  their  descend- 
ants, might  explain  this  attitude  in  New  England  and  the 
South,  but  why  a  foreign  writer,  with  whom  a  personal 
equation  should  not  have  been  in  any  degree  operative, 
should  have  gone  out  of  his  way  to  pronounce  against  the 
originality  of  the  songs  of  the  American  negroes,  cannot 
be  so  readily  understood.  Yet,  in  his  book,  "Primitive 
Music," ^  Dr.  Richard  Wallaschek  says: 

There  still  remains  to  be  mentioned  one  race  which  is  spread  all  over 
America  and  whose  musical  powers  have  attracted  the  attention  of  many 
Europeans — the  negro  race.  It  may  seem  inappropriate  to  treat  of  the 
negroes  in  this  place,  but  it  is  of  their  capabilities  under  the  influence  of 
culture  that  I  wish  to  make  a  few  remarks.  I  think  I  may  say  that,  generally 
speaking,  these  negro  songs  are  very  much  overrated,  and  that,  as  a  rule,  they 
are  mere  imitations  of  European  compositions  which  the  negroes  have  picked 
up  and  served  up  again  with  slight  variations.     Moreover,  it  is  a  remarkable 

^"An  Inquiry  into  the  Origin  and  Development  of  Music,  Songs,  Instru- 
ments, Dances  and  Pantomines  of  Savage  Races"  (London,  1893). 

r   11  1 


AFRO-AMERICAN   FOLKSONGS 

fact  that  one  author  has  frequently  copied  his  praise  of  negro  songs  from 
another,  and  determined  from  it  the  great  capabilities  of  the  blacks,  when  a 
closer  examination  would  have  revealed  the  fact  that  they  were  not  musical 
songs  at  all,  but  merely  simple  poems.  This  is  undoubtedly  the  case  with 
the  oft  quoted  negro  songs  of  Day  and  Busch.  The  latter  declares  that  the 
lucrative  business  which  negroes  made  by  singing  their  songs  in  the  streets 
of  American  towns  determined  the  whites  to  imitate  them,  and  with  black- 
ened faces  to  perform  their  own  *'compositions"  as  negro  songs.  We  must 
be  on  our  guard  against  the  selections  of  so-called  negro  songs,  which  are 
often  offered  us  as  negro  compositions. 

Miss  McKim  and  Mr.  Spaulding  were  the  first  to  try  to  make  negro 
songs  known,  the  former  of  whom,  in  connection  with  Allen  and  Ware,  pub- 
lished a  large  collection  v/hich  for  the  most  part  had  been  got  together  by  the 
negroes  of  Coffin's  point  and  in  the  neighboring  plantations  at  St.  Helena. 
I  cannot  think  that  these  and  the  rest  of  the  songs  deserve  the  praise  given 
by  the  editors,  for  they  are  unmistakably  "arranged" — not  to  say  ignorantly 
borrowed — from  the  national  songs  of  all  nations,  from  military  signals, 
well-known  marches,  German  student  songs,  etc.,  unless  it  is  pure  accident 
which  has  caused  me  to  light  upon  traces  of  so  many  of  them.  Miss  McKim 
herself  says  it  is  difficult  to  reproduce  in  notes  their  peculiar  guttural  sounds 
and  rhythmical  effects — almost  as  difficult,  in  fact  as  with  the  songs  of 
birds  or  the  tones  of  an  aeolian  harp.  "Still,  the  greater  part  of  negro  music 
is  civilized  in  its  character,"  sometimes  influenced  by  the  whites,  sometimes 
directly  imitated.  After  this  we  may  forego  the  necessity  for  a  thorough 
examination,  although  it  must  be  mentioned  here,  because  the  songs  are  so 
often  given  without  more  ado  as  examples  of  primitive  music.  It  is,  as  a  matter 
of  fact,  no  longer  primitive,  even  in  its  wealth  of  borrowed  melody.  Feeling 
for  harmony  seems  fairly  developed. 

It  was  not  Miss  McKim,  but  Mr.  Allen,  who  called 
attention  to  the  **civilized"  character  of  the  music  of  the 
slaves.  In  what  Miss  McKim  said  about  the  difficulty 
of  reproducing  **the  entire  character"  of  the  music,  as  she 
expresses  it,  by  the  conventional  symbols  of  the  art,  she 
adduces  a  proof  of  the  primitive  nature  of  some  of  its 
elements.  The  study  of  these  elements  might  profitably 
have  occupied  Dr.  Wallaschek's  attention  for  a  space. 
Had  he  made  more  than  cursory  examination  of  them  he 
would  not  have  been  so  sweeping  in  his  characterization 
of  the  songs  as  mere  imitations.  The  authors  whom  he 
quotes^  wrote  before  a  collection  of  songs  of  the  American 
negroes  had  been  made  on  which  a  scientific,  critical  opin- 
ion might  be  based.  As  for  Dr.  Wallaschek,  his  critical 
attitude  toward  "Slave  Songs"  is  amply  shown  by  his 
bracketing  it  with  a  publication  of  Christy  minstrel  songs 
which   appeared  in  London;  his  method  is  illustrated  by 

'Charles  William  Day,  who  published  a  work  entitled  "Five  Years' 
Residence  in  the  West  Indies,"  in  1852,  and  Moritz  Busch,  who  in  1854  pub- 
lished his  "Wanderungen  zwischen  Hudson  und  Mississippi." 

f     12     1 


SONGS  OF  THE  AMERICAN  SLAVES 

his  acceptance  in  his  resume  of  the  observations  of  travel- 
lers among  savage  peoples  (an  extremely  helpful  book 
otherwise)  of  their  terminology  as  well  as  their  opinions 
in  musical  matters.  Now,  nothing  is  more  notorious  than 
that  the  overwhelming  majority  of  the  travellers  who  have 
written  about  primitive  peoples  have  been  destitute  of 
even  the  most  elemental  knowledge  of  practical  as  well 
as  theoretical  music;  yet  without  some  knowledge  of  the 
art  it  is  impossible  even  to  give  an  intelligent  description 
of  the  rudest  musical  instruments.  The  phenomenon  is 
not  peculiar  to  African  travellers,  though  the  confusion 
of  terms  and  opinions  is  greater,  perhaps,  in  books  on 
Africa  than  anywhere  else.  Dr.  Wallaschek  did  not  per- 
mit the  fact  to  embarrass  him  in  the  least,  nor  did  he  even 
attempt  to  set  the  writers  straight  so  far  as  properly  to 
classify  the  instruments  which  they  describe.  All  kinds 
of  instruments  of  the  stringed  kind  are  jumbled  higgledy- 
piggledy  in  these  descriptions,  regardless  of  whether  or 
not  they  had  fingerboards  or  belonged  to  the  harp  family; 
bamboo  instruments  are  called  flutes,  even  if  they  are 
sounded  by  being  struck;  wooden  gongs  are  permitted  to 
parade  as  drums,  and  the  universal  "whizzer,"  or  "buzzer" 
(a  bit  of  flat  wood  attached  to  a  string  and  made  to  give 
a  whirring  sound  by  being  whirled  through  the  air)  is 
treated  even  by  Dr.  Wallaschek  as  if  it  were  an  aeolian 
harp.  A  common  African  instrument  of  rhythm,  a  stick 
with  one  edge  notched  like  a  saw,  over  which  another 
stick  is  rubbed,  which  has  its  counterpart  in  Louisiana  in 
the  jawbone  and  key,  is  discussed  as  if  it  belonged  to  the 
viol  family,  simply  because  it  is  rubbed.  He  does  not 
challenge  even  so  infantile  a  statement  as  that  of  Captain 
John  Smith  when  he  asserts  that  the  natives  of  Virginia 
had  "bass,  tenor,  counter-tenor,  alto  and  soprano  rattles." 
And  so  on.  These  things  may  not  influence  Dr.  Walla- 
schek's  deductions,  but  they  betoken  a  carelessness  of 
mind  which  should  not  exist  in  a  scientific  investigator,  and 
justify  a  challenge  of  his  statement  that  the  songs  of  the 
American  negroes  are  predominantly  borrowings  from 
European  music. 

[     13    ] 


AFRO-AMERICAN   FOLKSONGS 

Besides,  the  utterance  is  illogical.  Similarities  exist 
between  the  folksongs  of  all  peoples.  Their  overlapping  is 
a  necessary  consequence  of  the  proximity  and  intermingling 
of  peoples,  like  modifications  of  language;  and  there  are 
some  characteristics  which  all  songs  except  those  of  the 
rudest  and  most  primitive  kind  must  have  in  common. 
The  prevalence  of  the  diatonic  scales  and  the  existence 
of  march-rhythms, for  instance,  make  parallels  unavoidable. 
If  the  use  of  such  scales  and  rhythms  in  the  folksongs  of  the 
American  negroes  is  an  evidence  of  plagiarism  or  imitation, 
it  is  to  be  feared  that  the  peoples  whose  music  they  put 
under  tribute  have  been  equally  culpable  with  them. 
Again,  if  the  songs  are  but  copies  of  "the  national  songs 
of  all  nations,  military  signals,  well-known  marches,  Ger- 
man student  songs,  etc.,''  why  did  white  men  blacken 
their  faces  and  imitate  these  imitations  ^  Were  the  facilities 
of  the  slaves  to  hear  all  these  varieties  of  foreign  music 
better  than  those  of  their  white  imitators.^  It  is  plain  that 
Dr.  Wallaschek  never  took  the  trouble  to  acquaint  himself 
with  the  environment  of  the  black  slaves  in  the  United 
States.  How  much  music  containing  the  exotic  elements 
which  I  have  found  in  some  songs,  and  which  I  shall  pres- 
ently discuss,  ever  penetrated  to  the  plantations  where 
these  songs  grew.'*  It  did  not  need  Dr.  Wallaschek's  con- 
fession that  he  did  not  think  it  necessary  to  make  a  thorough 
examination  of  even  the  one  genuine  collection  which 
came  under  his  notice  to  demonstrate  that  he  did  not  look 
analytically  at  the  songs  as  a  professedly  scientific  man 
should  have  done  before  publishing  his  wholesale  charac- 
terization and  condemnation.  This  characterization  is 
of  a  piece  with  his  statement  that  musical  contests  which 
he  mentions  of  the  Nishian  women  which  are  "won  by  the 
woman  who  sings  loudest  and  longest"  are  "still  in  use 
in  America,"  which  precious  piece  of  intelligence  he  proves 
by  relating  a  newspaper  story  about  a  pianoforte  play- 
ing match  in  a  dime  museum  in  New  York  in  1892.  The 
truth  is  that,  like  many  another  complacent  German  savant. 
Dr.  Wallaschek  thinks  Americans  are  barbarians.  He  is 
welcome  to  his  opinion,  which  can  harm  no  one  but  himself. 

f     14     1 


SONGS  OF  THE  AMERICAN  SLAVES 

That  there  should  be  resemblances  between  some  of  the 
songs  sung  by  the  American  blacks  and  popular  songs  of 
other  origin  need  surprise  no  one.  In  the  remark  about 
civilized  music  made  by  Mr.  Allen,  which  Dr.  Wallaschek 
attributes  to  Miss  McKim,  it  is  admitted  that  the  music 
of  the  negroes  is  "partly  actually  imitated  from  their 
music,"  i,  e.,  the  music  of  the  whites;  but  Mr.  Allen  adds: 
"In  the  main  it  appears  to  be  original  in  the  best  sense 
of  the  word,  and  the  more  we  examine  the  subject,  the 
more  genuine  it  appears  to  be.  In  a  very  few  songs,  as 
Nos.  19,  23  and  25,  strains  of  familiar  tunes  are  readily 
traced;  and  it  may  easily  be  that  others  contain  strains 
of  less  familiar  music  which  the  slaves  heard  their  masters 
sing  or  play."  It  would  be  singular,  indeed,  if  this  were 
not  the  case,  for  it  is  a  universal  law.  Of  the  songs  singled 
out  by  Mr.  Allen,  No.  19  echoes  what  Mr.  Allen  describes 
as  a  familiar  Methodist  hymn,  'Ain't  I  glad  I  got  out  of 
the  Wilderness,' "  but  he  admits  that  it  may  be  original.  I 
have  never  seen  the  song  in  a  collection  of  Methodist 
hymns,  but  I  am  certain  that  I  used  to  sing  it  as  a  boy  to 
words  which  were  anything  but  religious.  Moreover,  the 
second  period  of  the  tune,  the  only  part  that  is  in  con- 
troversy, has  a  prototype  of  great  dignity  and  classic 
ancestry;  it  is  the  theme  of  the  first  Allegro  of  Bach's 
sonata  in  E  for  violin  and  clavier.  I  know  of  no  parallel 
for  No.  23  ("I  saw  the  Beam  in  my  Sister's  eye")  except 
in  other  negro  songs.  The  second  period  of  No.  23  ("Gwine 
Follow"),  as  Mr.  Allen  observes,  "is  evidently  'Buffalo,' 
variously  known  as  'Charleston'  or  'Baltimore  Gals.'  " 
But  who  made  the  tune  for  the  "gals"  of  Buffalo,  Charleston 
and  Baltimore.'*  The  melodies  which  were  more  direct 
progenitors  of  the  songs  which  Christy's  Minstrels  and 
other  minstrel  companies  carried  all  over  the  land  were 
attributed  to  the  Southern  negroes;  songs  like  "Coal- 
black  Rose,"  "Zip  Coon"  and  "Ole  Virginny  Nebber 
Tire,"  have  always  been  accepted  as  the  creations  of  the 
blacks,  though  I  do  not  know  whether  or  not  they  really 
are.  Concerning  them  I  am  skeptical,  to  say  the  least, 
if  only  for  the  reason  that  we  have  no  evidence  on  the  sub- 

[     15     1 


AFRO-AMERICAN   FOLKSONGS 

ject.  So-called  negro  songs  are  more  than  a  century  old 
in  the  music-rooms  of  America.  A  song  descriptive  of  the 
battle  of  Plattsburg  was  sung  in  a  drama  to  words  supposed- 
ly in  negro  dialect,  as  long  ago  as  1815.  *'Jump  Jim 
Crow"  was  caught  by  Thomas  D.  ("Daddy")  Rice  from 
the  singing  and  dancing  of  an  old,  deformed  and  decrepit 
negro  slave  in  Louisville  eighty-five  years  ago  (if  the  best 
evidence  obtainable  on  the  subject  is  to  be  believed),  and 
this  was  the  starting-point  of  negro  minstrelsy  of  the 
Christy  type.  "Dandy  Jim  of  Caroline"  may  also  have 
had  a  negro  origin;  I  do  not  know,  and  the  question  is 
inconsequential  here  for  the  reason  that  the  Afro-American 
folksongs  which  I  am  trying  to  study  owe  absolutely 
nothing  to  the  songs  which  the  stage  impersonators  of 
the  negro  slave  made  popular  in  the  United  States  and 
England.  They  belong  to  an  entirely  different  order  of 
creations.  For  one  thing,  they  are  predominantly  re- 
ligious songs;  it  is  a  singular  fact  that  very  few  secular 
songs — those  which  are  referred  to  as  "reel  tunes,"  "fiddle 
songs,"  "corn  songs"  and  "devil  songs,"  for  which  the 
slaves  generally  expressed  a  deep  abhorrence,  though 
many  of  them,  no  doubt,  were  used  to  stimulate  them  while 
at  work  in  the  fields — have  been  preserved,  while  "shout 
songs"  and  other  "speritchils"  (spirituals — "ballets"  they 
were  called  at  a  later  day)  have  been  kept  alive  by  the 
hundreds.  The  explanation  of  the  phenomenon  is  psy- 
chological. 

There  are  a  few  other  resemblances  which  may  be 
looked  into.  "Who  is  on  the  Lord's  side?"^  may  have 
suggested  the  notion  of  "military  calls"  to  Dr.  Wallaschek. 
"In  Bright  Mansions  Above"^  contains  a  phrase  which 
may  have  been  inspired  by  "The  Wearing  of  the  Green." 
A  palpable  likeness  to  "Camptown  Races"  exists  in  "Lord, 
Remember  Me."^  Stephen  C.  Foster  wrote  "Camp- 
town  Races"  in  1850;  the  book  called  "Slave  Songs  of  the 
United  States"  was  published  in  1867,  but  the  songs  were 
collected  several  years  before.     I  have  no  desire  to  rob 

1  "Slave  Songs,"  No.  75. 

2  No.  78  of  the  Fisk  Jubilee  Collection. 
•  No.  7  in  "Slave  Songs." 

[     16    1 


SONGS  OF  THE  AMERICAN   SLAVES 

Foster  of  the  credit  of  having  written  the  melody  of  his 
song;  he  would  have  felt  justified  had  he  taken  it  from  the 
lips  of  a  slave,  but  it  is  more  than  likely  that  he  invented 
it  and  that  it  was  borrowed  in  part  for  a  hymn  by  the 
negroes.  The  "spirituals"  are  much  sophisticated  with 
worldly  sentiment  and  phrase. 

There  are  surprisingly  few  references  to  the  servitude 
of  the  blacks  in  their  folksongs  which  can  be  traced  to 
ante-bellum  days.  The  text  of  "Mother,  is  Massa  Gwine 
to  sell  us  To-morrow?"  would  seem  to  be  one  of  these; 
but  it  is  not  in  the  earliest  collection  and  may  be  of  later 
date  in  spite  of  its  sentiment.  I  present  three  interesting 
examples  which  celebrate  the  deliverance  from  slavery, 
of  which  two,  "Many  Thousands  Gone"^  and  "Many 
Thousand  Go"^  are  obviously  musical  variants  of  the 
same  song  (see  pages  i8,  19,  20).  Colonel  Higginson,  who 
collected  the  second,  says  of  it  in  his  "Atlantic  Monthly" 
essay:  "They  had  another  song  to  which  the  Rebellion 
had  actually  given  rise.  This  was  composed  by  nobody 
knew  whom — though  it  was  the  most  recent,  doubtless, 
of  all  these  'spirituals' — and  had  been  sung  in  secret  to 
avoid  detection.  It  is  certainly  plaintive  enough.  The 
peck  of  corn  and  pint  of  salt  were  slavery's  rations."  The 
editors  of  "Slave  Songs"  add:  "Lieutenant-Colonel  Trow- 
bridge learned  that  it  was  first  sung  when  Beauregard  took 
the  slaves  to  the  islands  to  build  the  fortifications  at 
Hilton  Head  and  Bay  Point."  The  third  song,  "Done  wid 
Briber's  Dribin',''  was  first  printed  in  Mr.  H.  G.  Spauld- 
ing's  essay  "Under  the  Palmetto"  in  the  "Continental 
Monthly"  for  August,  1863.  The  song  "Oh,  Freedom  over 
Me,"  which  Dr.  Burghardt  du  Bois  quotes  in  his  "The 
Souls  of  Black  Folk"  as  an  expression  of  longing  for 
deliverance  from  slavery  encouraged  by  fugitive  slaves 
and  the  agitation  of  free  negro  leaders  before  the  War  of  the 
Rebellion,  challenges  no  interest  for  its  musical  contents, 
since  it  is  a  compound  of  two  white  men's  tunes — "Lily 
Dale,"  a  sentimental  ditty,  and  "The  Battle-Cry  of  Free- 
dom," a  patriotic  song  composed  by  George  F.  Root,  in 

^  Fisk  Jubilee  Collection,  No.  23. 
2  "Slave  Songs,"  No.  64. 

[     17    ] 


AFRO-AMERICAN   FOLKSONGS 


THREE    EMANCIPATION    SONGS 

I.  Words  and  Melody  from  "Slave  Songs  of  the 
United  States";— II.  From  *The  Continental  Month- 
ly" of  August,  1863,  reprinted  in  **Slave  Songs"; — 
III.  From  *'The  Story  of  the  Jubilee  Singers."  The 
arrangements  are  by  H.  T.  Burleigh. 

Many  Thousand  Go 


LftT^hetto 
1  No  more  peck   o'        com    for  me,        No    more,    no  more, 


a.  No  more  drivers  lash  formfe. 
3.  No  more  pint  o'  salt  forme. 


4.  No  more  hundred  lash  for  me. 

5.  No  more  mistress'  call  for  me. 


[     18    ] 


SONGS  OF  THE  AMERICAN  SLAVES 


Done  wid  Bribers  Dribin' 
n 


Andante 


1.  Done   wid    dri-ber's      dri-bin',        Done  wjd  dri  -  ber's     dri-bin, 


2.  Done  wid  Massa's  hollerin', 
Done  wid  Massa's  hollerin', 
Bone  wid  Massa's  hollerin'; 
Roll,  Jordan,  roll. 


3.  Done  wid  Missus  scoldin', 
Done  wid  Missus*  scoldin', 
Done  wid  Missus'  scoldin'; 
Roll,  Jordan,  roll. 


[    19    1 


AFRO-AMERICAN   FOLKSONGS 


Many  Thousands  Gone 
in 


Lar^hetto 


No  more    auction  -  block    for    me:        Maa-y      thou- sainds      g-one. 


a.  No  more  peck  o'  com,  etc.  4.  No  more  pint  o*salt,  etc. 

3.  No  more  driver's  lash>  etc.  6.  No  more  hundred  lash,  etc. 

e.  No  more  mistress'  call,  etc. 


I    20   I 


SONGS  OF  THE  AMERICAN  SLAVES 

Chicago,  and  inspired  by  President  Lincoln's  second  call 
for  volunteers  in  the  summer  of  1861.  There  was  time 
for  the  negro  song  to  have  grown  up  between  1861  and  the 
emancipation  of  the  slaves,  but  it  is  not  likely  that  slaves 
anywhere  in  the  United  States  outside  of  the  lines  of 
the   Federal  armies  would  have  dared  to  sing 

O  Freedom,  O  Freedom, 

O  Freedom  over  me! 
Before  I'll  be  a  slave, 
ril  be  buried  in  my  grave. 
And  go  home  to  my  Lord, 

And  be  free! 

before  1863.  Besides,  the  song  did  not  appear  in  print,  I 
believe,  till  it  was  published  in  "Religious  Folk  Songs  of  the 
Negro,  as  Sung  on  the  Plantations,''  an  edition  of  "Cabin 
and  Plantation  Songs  as  Sung  by  the  Hampton  Students," 
published  in  1909.  The  early  editions  of  the  book  knew 
nothing  of  the  song.  Colonel  Higginson  quotes  a  song 
with  a  burden  of  "We'll  soon  be  free,"  for  singing  which 
negroes  had  been  put  in  jail  at  the  outbreak  of  the  Rebel- 
lion in  Georgetown,  S.  C.  In  spite  of  the  obviously  appar- 
ent sentiment.  Colonel  Higginson  says  it  had  no  reference 
to  slavery,  though  he  thinks  it  may  have  been  sung 
"with  redoubled  emphasis  during  the  new  events."  It 
was,  in  fact,  a  song  of  hoped-for  deliverance  from  the 
sufferings  of  this  world  and  of  anticipation  of  the  joys 
of  Paradise,  where  the  faithful  were  to  "walk  de  miry 
road"  and  "de  golden  streets,"  on  which  pathways 
"pleasure  never  dies."  No  doubt  there  was  to  the  singers 
a  hidden  allegorical  significance  in  the  numerous  allusions 
to  the  deliverance  of  the  Israelites  from  Egyptian  bondage 
contained  in  the  songs,  and  some  of  this  significance  may 
have  crept  into  the  songs  before  the  day  of  freedom 
began  to  dawn.  A  line,  "The  Lord  will  call  us  home," 
in  the  song  just  referred  to,  Colonel  Higginson  says  "was 
evidently  thought  to  be  a  symbolical  verse;  for,  as  a  little 
drummer-boy  explained  to  me,  showing  all  his  white  teeth 
as  he  sat  in  the  moonlight  by  the  door  of  my  tent,  'Dey 
tink  de  Lord  mean  for  say  de  Yankees.'  " 

If  the  songs  which  came  from  the  plantations  of  the 

f.     21     ] 


AFRO-AMERICAN   FOLKSONGS 

South  are  to  conform  to  the  scientific  definition  of  folksongs 
as  I  laid  it  down  in  the  preceding  chapter,  they  must  be 
"born,  not  made;"  they  must  be  spontaneous  utterances 
of  the  people  who  originally  sang  them;  they  must  also 
be  the  fruit  of  the  creative  capacity  of  a  whole  and  in- 
genuous people,  not  of  individual  artists,  and  give  voice 
to  the  joys,  sorrows  and  aspirations  of  that  people.  They 
must  betray  the  influences  of  the  environment  in  which 
they  sprang  up,  and  may  preserve  relics  of  the  likes  and 
aptitudes  of  their  creators  when  in  the  earlier  environment 
from  which  they  emerged.  The  best  of  them  must  be  felt 
by  the  singers  themselves  to  be  emotional  utterances. 
The  only  considerable  body  of  song  which  has  come  into 
existence  in  the  territory  now  compassed  by  the  United 
States,  I  might  even  say  in  North  America,  excepting 
the  primitive  songs  of  the  Indians  (which  present  an  en- 
tirely different  aspect),  are  the  songs  of  the  former  black 
slaves.  In  Canada  the  songs  of  the  people,  or  that  portion 
of  the  people  that  can  be  said  still  to  sing  from  impulse, 
are  predominantly  French,  not  only  in  language  but  in 
subject.  They  were  for  the  greater  part  transferred  to 
this  continent  with  the  bodily  integrity  which  they  now 
possess.  Only  a  small  portion  show  an  admixture  of  In- 
dian elements;  but  the  songs  of  the  black  slaves  of  the 
South  are  original  and  native  products.  They  contain 
idioms  which  were  transplanted  hither  from  Africa,  but 
as  songs  they  are  the  product  of  American  institutions; 
of  the  social,  political  and  geographical  environment  within 
which  their  creators  were  placed  in  America;  of  the  in- 
fluences to  which  they  were  subjected  in  America;  of  the 
joys,  sorrows  and  experiences  which  fell  to  their  lot  in 
America. 

Nowhere  save  on  the  plantations  of  the  South  could 
the  emotional  life  which  is  essential  to  the  development 
of  true  folksong  be  developed;  nowhere  else  was  there  the 
necessary  meeting  of  the  spiritual  cause  and  the  simple 
agent  and  vehicle.  The  white  inhabitants  of  the  continent 
have  never  been  in  the  state  of  cultural  ingenuousness 
which  prompts  spontaneous  emotional  utterance  in  music. 

[    22     ] 


SONGS  OF  THE  AMERICAN  SLAVES 

Civilization  atrophies  the  faculty  which  creates  this 
phenomenon  as  it  does  the  creation  of  myth  and  legend. 
Sometimes  the  faculty  is  galvanized  into  life  by  vast  cala- 
mities or  crises  which  shake  all  the  fibres  of  social  and 
national  existence;  and  then  we  see  its  fruits  in  the  compo- 
sitions of  popular  musicians.  Thus  the  War  of  the  Rebel- 
lion produced  songs  markedly  imbued  with  the  spirit  of 
folksong,  like  "The  Battle-Cry  of  Freedom,"  "Tramp, 
Tramp,  Tramp,  the  Boys  are  Marching,"  and  "Marching 
Through  Georgia."  But  it  is  a  singular  fact  that  the 
patriotic  songs  of  the  American  people  during  the  War  of 
the  Revolution  and  the  War  of  1812  were  literary  and 
musical  parodies  of  English  songs.  We  took  the  music  of 
"Yankee  Doodle"  and  "The  Star-Spangled  Banner"  from 
the  lips  of  the  enemy. 

It  did  not  lie  in  the  nature  of  the  mill  life  of  New  England 
or  the  segregated  agricultural  life  of  the  Western  pioneers 
to  inspire  folksongs;  those  occupations  lacked  the  romantic 
and  emotional  elements  which  existed  in  the  slave  life  of 
the  plantations  in  the  South  and  which  invited  celebration 
in  song — grave  and  gay.  Nor  were  the  people  of  the  North 
possessed  of  the  ingenuous,  native  musical  capacity  of  the 
Southern  blacks. 

It  is  in  the  nature  of  things  that  the  origin  of  individual 
folksongs  should  as  a  rule  remain  unknown;  but  we  have 
evidence  to  show  how  some  of  them  grew,  and  from  it  we 
deduce  the  general  rule  as  it  has  been  laid  down.  Colonel 
Thomas  Wentworth  Higginson,  in  his  delightful  essay 
"Negro  Spirituals,"  published  in  "The  Atlantic  Monthly" 
for  June,  1867,  tells  an  illuminative  anecdote.  Speaking 
of  "No  More  Peck  of  Corn  for  Me,"  he  says: 

Even  of  this  last  composition,  however,  we  have  only  the  approximate 
date,  and  know  nothing  of  the  mode  of  composition.  Allen  Ramsey  says  of 
the  Scotch  songs  that,  no  matter  who  made  them,  they  were  soon  attributed 
to  the  minister  of  the  parish  whence  they  sprang.  And  I  always  wondered, 
about  these,  whether  they  had  always  a  conscious  and  definite  origin  in  some 
leading  mind  or  whether  they  grew  by  gradual  accretion  in  an  almost  un- 
conscious way.  On  this  point  I  could  get  no  information,  though  I  asked 
many  questions,  until  at  last  one  day  when  I  was  being  rowed  across  from 
Beaufort  to  Ladies'  Island,  I  found  myself,  with  delight,  on  the  actual  trail 
of  a  song.  One  of  the  oarsmen,  a  brisk  young  fellow,  not  a  soldier,  on  being 
asked  for  his  theory  of  the  matter,  dropped  out  a  coy  confession.  "Some  good 
sperituals,"  he  said,  "are  start  jest  out  o'  curiosity.  I  bin  a-raise  a  sing  myself 
once." 

f     23     1 


AFRO-AMERICAN   FOLKSONGS 

My  dream  was  fulfilled,  and  I  had  traced  out  not  the  poem  alone,  but  the 
poet.     I  implored  him  to  proceed. 

"Once  we  boys  went  for  tote  some  rice,  and  de  nigger  driver,  he  keep  a- 
callin'  on  us:  and  I  say,  'O,  de  ole  nigger  driver!"  Den  anudder  said,  'Fust 
t'ing  my  mammy  tole  me  was  not'in'  so  bad  as  a  nigger  driver.*  Den  I  made 
a  sing,  just  puttin'  a  word  and  den  anudder  word." 

Then  he  began  singing  and  the  men,  after  listening  a  moment,  joined  in  the 
chorus  as  if  it  were  an  old  acquaintance,  though  they  evidently  had  never 
heard  it  before.    I  saw  how  easily  a  new  "sing"  took  root  among  them. 
"O,  de  ole  nigger  driver! 

O,  gwine  away! 
Fust  t'ing  my  mammy  tell  me. 

O,  gwine  away! 
Tell  me  'bout  de  nigger  driver, 

O,  gwine  away! 
Nigger  driver  second  devil, 

O,  gwine  away! 
Best  t'ing  for  do  he  driver, 

O,  gwine  away! 
Knock  he  down  and  spoil  he  labor — 
O,  gwine  away!" 

A  similar  story,  which  also  throws  light  on  the  emanci- 
pation songs  which  I  have  printed,  was  told  by  J.  Miller 
McKim  in  an  address  delivered  in  Philadelphia  on  July 
9,   1862: 

I  asked  one  of  these  blacks,  one  of  the  most  intelligent  of  them,  where  they 
got  these  songs. 

"Dey  make  *em,  sah." 

"How  do  they  make  them?"_ 

After  a  pause,  evidently  casting  about  for  an  explanation,  he  said: 

"I'll  tell  you;  it's  dis  way:  My  master  call  me  up  an'  order  me  a  short  peck 
of  corn  and  a  hundred  lash.  My  friends  see  it  and  is  sorry  for  me.  When  dey 
come  to  de  praise  meeting  dat  night  dey  sing  about  it.  Some's  very  good 
singers  and  know  how;  and  dey  work  it  in,  work  it  in,  you  know,  till  dey  get 
it  right;  and  dat's  de  way." 

"In  ancient  Rome  sick  slaves  were  exposed  on  the  island 
of  Aesculapius,  in  the  Tiber;  by  a  decree  of  Claudius  slaves 
so  exposed  could  not  be  reclaimed  by  their  master." — 
(Encyclopaedia  Britannica,  art.  "Slavery.") 

An  incident  which  gave  rise  in  Jamaica  to  a  folksong, 
which  is  a  remarkably  fine  example  of  dramatic  directness 
and  forcefulness,  but  of  which,  most  unfortunately,  the 
music  has  not  been  preserved,  recalls  this  ancient  regu- 
lation.    Here  is  the  song: 

"Take  him  to  the  gully!    Take  him  to  the  gully, 
But  bringee  back  the  frock  and  the  board." 
"O  massa,  massa!  Me  no  deadee  yet!" 
"Take  him  to  the  gully!  Take  him  to  the  gully; 
Carry  him  along!" 

How  this  song  came  into  existence  is  thus  related  in 

[     24    1 


SONGS  OF  THE  AMERICAN  SLAVES 

"A  Journal  of  a   Residence  Among  the  Negroes   in   the 
West  Indies,"  by  Matthew  Gregory  Lewis  :^ 

The  song  alludes  to  a  transaction  which  took  place  about  fifty  years  ago 
on  an  estate  called  Spring  Garden,  the  owner  of  which  is  quoted  as  the  cruelest 
proprietor  that  ever  disgraced  Jamaica.  It  was  his  constant  practice,  when- 
ever a  sick  negro  was  pronounced  incurable,  to  order  the  poor  wretch  to  be 
carried  to  a  solitary  vale  upon  his  estate,  called  the  Gully,  where  he  was  thrown 
down  and  abandoned  to  his  fate — which  fate  was  generally  to  be  half-de- 
voured by  the  John  crows  before  death  had  put  an  end  to  his  sufferings.  By 
this  proceeding  the  avaricious  owner  avoided  the  expense  of  maintaining 
the  slave  during  his  last  illness;  and  in  order  that  he  might  be  as  little  a  loser 
as  possible  he  always  enjoined  the  negro  bearers  of  the  dying  man  to  strip 
him  naked  before  leaving  the  Gully,  and  not  to  forget  to  bring  back  his  frock 
and  the  board  on  which  he  had  been  carried  down. 

One  poor  creature,  while  in  the  act  of  being  removed,  screamed  out  most 
piteously  that  he  was  not  dead  yet,  and  implored  not  to  be  left  to  perish  in 
the  Gully  in  a  manner  so  horrible.  His  cries  had  no  effect  upon  the  master, 
but  operated  so  forcibly  on  the  less  marble  hearts  of  his  fellow  slaves  that  in 
the  night  some  of  them  removed  him  back  to  the  negro  village  privately  and 
nursed  him  there  with  so  much  care  that  he  recovered  and  left  the  estate  un- 
questioned and  undiscovered.  Unluckily,  one  day  the  master  was  passing 
through  Kingston,  when,  on  turning  the  corner  of  a  street  suddenly,  he  found 
himself  face  to  face  with  the  negro  whom  he  had  supposed  long  ago  to  have 
been  picked  to  the  bones  in  the  Gully.  He  immediately  seized  him,  claimed 
him  as  his  slave  and  ordered  his  attendants  to  convey  him  to  his  house;  but 
the  fellow's  cry  attracted  a  crowd  around  them  before  he  could  be  dragged 
away.  He  related  his  melancholy  story  and  the  singular  manner  in  which 
he  had  recovered  his  life  and  liberty,  and  the  public  indignation  was  so 
forcibly  excited  by  the  shocking  tale  that  Mr.  B was  glad  to  save  him- 
self from  being  torn  to  pieces  by  a  precipitate  retreat  from  Kingston  and 
never  ventured  to  advance  his  claim  to  the  negro  a  second  time. 

But  the  Story  lived  in  the  song  which  the  narrator  heard 
half  a  century  later.  Imagine  the  dramatic  pathos  of  the 
words  paired  with  the  pathos  of  the  tune  which  welled  up 
with  them  when  the  singers  repeated  the  harsh  utterances  of 
the  master  and  the  pleadings  of  the  wretched  slave!  It  is 
out  of  experiences  like  these  that  folksongs  are  made. 
There  were,  it  is  true,  few  cases  of  such  monstrous  cruelty 
in  any  of  the  sections  in  which  slavery  flourished  in  America, 
though  it  fell  to  my  lot  fifteen  years  after  slavery  had 
been  abolished  to  report  the  testimony  in  a  law  case 
of  an  old  black  woman  who  was  seeking  to  recover  dam- 
ages from  a  former  Sheriff  of  Kenton  County,  Ky.,  for 
having  abducted  her,  when  a  free  woman  living  in  Cincin- 
nati, and  selling  her  into  slavery.  A  slave  she  remained 
until  freed  by  President  Lincoln's  proclamation,  and  in 
measure  of  damages   she   told   on   the   witness   stand   of 

1  London,  1845. 

[      25     ] 


AFRO-AMERICAN   FOLKSONGS 

seeing  a  young  black  woman  on  a  plantation  in  Mississippi 
stripped  naked,  tied  by  the  feet  and  hands  flat  upon  the 
ground  and  so  inhumanly  flogged  that  she  died  in  a  few 
hours.  That  story  also  might  well  have  been  perpetuated 
in  a  folksong.  There  was  sunshine  as  well  as  gloom  in  the 
life  of  the  black  slaves  in  the  Southern  colonies  and  States, 
and  so  we  have  songs  which  are  gay  as  well  as  grave;  but 
as  a  rule  the  finest  songs  are  the  fruits  of  sufl"ering  under- 
gone and  the  hope  of  the  deliverance  from  bondage  which 
was  to  come  with  translation  to  heaven  after  death.  The 
oldest  of  them  are  the  most  beautiful,  and  many  of  the 
most  striking  have  never  yet  been  collected,  partly  because 
they  contained  elements,  melodic  as  well  as  rhythmical, 
which  baffled  the  ingenuity  of  the  early  collectors.  Un- 
fortunately, trained  musicians  have  never  entered  upon 
the  field,  and  it  is  to  be  feared  that  it  is  now  too  late.  The 
peculiarities  which  the  collaborators  on  ^'Slave  Songs  of  the 
United  States"  recognized,  but  could  not  imprison  on  the 
written  page,  were  elements  which  would  have  been  of 
especial  interest  to  the  student  of  art. 

Is  it  not  the  merest  quibble  to  say  that  these  songs  are 
not  American.^  They  were  created  in  America  under 
American  influences  and  by  people  who  are  Americans  in 
the  same  sense  that  any  other  element  of  our  population 
is  American — every  element  except  the  aboriginal.  But 
is  there  an  aboriginal  element.'^  Are  the  red  men  autoch- 
thones ?  Science  seems  to  have  answered  that  they  are  not. 
Then  they,  too,  are  American  only  because  they  have  come 
to  live  in  America.  They  may  have  come  from 
Asia.  The  majority  of  other  Americans  came  from 
Europe.  Is  It  only  an  African  who  can  sojourn  here  without 
becoming  an  American  and  producing  American  things? 
Is  it  a  matter  of  length  of  stay  in  the  country.^  Scarcely 
that;  or  some  negroes  would  have  at  least  as  good  a  claim 
on  the  title  as  the  descendants  of  the  Puritans  and  Pilgrims. 
Negroes  figure  in  the  accounts  of  his  voyages  to  America 
made  by  Columbus.  Their  presence  in  the  West  Indies 
was  noticed  as  early  as  1501.  Balboa  was  assisted  by 
negroes   In   building  the  first  ships  sent  into  the   Pacific 

[     26     1 


SONGS  OF  THE  AMERICAN  SLAVES 

Ocean  from  American  shores.  A  year  before  the  English 
colonists  landed  on  Plymouth  Rock  negroes  were  sold 
into  servitude  in  Virginia.  When  the  first  census  of  the 
United  States  was  taken  in  1790,  there  were  757,208  negroes 
in  the  country.  There  are  now  10,000,000.  These  people 
all  speak  the  language  of  America.  They  are  native  born. 
Their  songs,  a  matter  of  real  moment  in  the  controversy, 
are  sung  in  the  language  of  America  (albeit  in  a  corrupt 
dialect),  and  as  much  entitled  to  be  called  American  songs 
as  would  be  the  songs,  were  there  any  such,  created  here 
by  any  other  element  of  our  population.  They  may  not 
give  voice  to  the  feelings  of  the  entire  population  of  the 
country,  but  for  a  song  which  shall  do  that  we  shall 
have  to  wait  until  the  amalgamation  of  the  inhabitants  of 
thcf  United  States  is  complete.  Will  such  a  time  ever  come? 
Perhaps  so;  but  it  will  be  after  the  people  of  the  world 
cease  swarming  as  they  have  swarmed  from  the  birth  of 
history  till  now.  There  was  a  travelled  road  from  Meso- 
potamia to  the  Pillars  of  Hercules  in  the  time  of  Abraham. 
The  women  of  Myksene  wore  beads  of  amber  brought 
from  the  German  Ocean,  when 

"Illon,  like  a  mist,  rose  into  towers." 

The  folksongs  of  Suabia,  Bavaria,  the  Rhineland,  Fran- 
conia — of  all  the  German  countries,  principalities  and 
provinces — are  German  folksongs;  the  songs  of  the  German 
apprentices,  soldiers,  huntsmen,  clerks,  journeymen — giving 
voice  to  the  experiences  and  feelings  of  each  group — are  all 
German  folksongs.  Why  are  not  the  songs  of  the  American 
negroes  American  folksongs.'*  Can  any  one  say?  It  is 
deplorable  that  so  pessimistic  a  note  should  sound  through 
the  writings  of  any  popular  champion  as  sounds  through 
the  most  eloquent  English  book  ever  written  by  any  one 
of  African  blood;  but  no  one  shall  read  Burghardt  DuBois's 
"The  Souls  of  Black  Folk'*  without  being  moved  by  the 
pathos  of  his  painful  cry: 

Your  country?  How  came  it  yours?  Before  the  Pilgrims  landed  we  were 
here.  Here  we  have  brought  our  three  gifts  and  mingled  them  with  yours — 
a  gift  of  story  and  song,  soft,  stirring  melody  in  an  ill  harmonized  and  un- 
melodious  land;  the  gift  of  sweat  and  brawn  to  beat  back  the  wilderness, 
conquer  the  soil  and  lay  the  foundations  of  this  vast  economic  empire  two 

[     27     ] 


AFRO-AMERICAN   FOLKSONGS 

hundred  years  earlier  than  your  weak  hands  could  have  done  it;  the  third, 
a  gift  of  the  Spirit.  Around  us  the  history  of  the  land  has  centered  for  thrice 
a  hundred  years;  out  of  the  nation's  heart  we  have  called  all  that  was  best 
to  throttle  and  subdue  all  that  was  worst;  fire  and  blood,  prayer  and  sacrifice, 
have  billowed  over  this  people,  and  they  have  found  peace  only  in  the  altars 
of  the  God  of  Right.  Nor  has  our  gift  of  the  Spirit  been  merely  passive. 
Actively  we  have  woven  ourselves  with  the  very  warp  and  woof  of  this  nation 
— we  fought  their  battles,  shared  their  sorrows,  mingled  our  blood  with  theirs, 
and  generation  after  generation  have  pleaded  with  a  headstrong,  careless 
people  to  despise  not  Justice,  Mercy  and  Truth,  lest  the  nation  be  smitten 
with  a  curse.  Our  song,  our  toil,  our  cheer  and  warning  have  been  given  to 
this  nation  in  blood  brotherhood.  Are  not  these  gifts  worth  giving?  Is  not 
this  work  and  striving?  Would  America  have  been  America  without  her 
negro  people? 

Even  so  is  the  hope  that  sang  in  the  songs  of  my  fathers  well  sung.  If 
somewhere  in  this  swirl  and  chaos  of  things  there  dwells  Eternal  Good,  pitiful 
yet  masterful,  then  anon  in  His  good  time  America  shall  rend  the  veil  and  the 
prisoned  shall  go  free — free,  free  as  the  sunshine  trickling  down  the  morning 
into  these  high  windows  of  mine;  free  as  yonder  fresh  voices  welling  up  to  me 
from  the  caverns  of  brick  and  mortar  below — swelling  with  song,  instinct 
with  life,  tremulous  treble  and  darkening  bass. 

Greatly  as  it  pains  me,  I  should  be  sorry  if  one  should 
ask  me  to  strike  that  passage  out  of  **American"  prose 
writing. 


f     28    } 


CHAPTER  III 

RELIGIOUS   CHARACTER 
OF  THE  SONGS 


The  Paucity  of  Secular  Songs  among  the  Slaves- 
Campmeetings,     "Spirituals"     and     "Shouts" — 
Work-Songs    of   the    Fields   and    Rivers — 
Lafcadio    Hearn    and   Negro    Music — 
African  Relics  and  Voodoo   Cere- 
monies. 


Having  looked  into  the  genesis  of  the  folksongs  of  the 
American  negroes,  I  purpose  now  to  lay  a  foundation  for 
examination  into  some  of  the  musical  idioms  which  charac- 
terize them,  so  that,  presently,  their  origin  as  well  as  their 
effect  may  be  discussed.  Before  then,  however,  something 
must  be  said  about  the  various  classes  of  songs  and  their 
use.  Here  the  most  striking  fact  that  presents  itself  is 
the  predominance  of  hymns,  or  religious  songs.  The  reason 
for  this  will  readily  be  found  by  those  who  are  willing 
to  accept  Herbert  Spencer's  theory  of  the  origin  of  music 
and  my  definition  of  folksong.  Slavery  was  the  sorrow 
of  the  Southern  blacks;  religion  was  their  comfort  and 
refuge.  That  religion  was  not  a  dogmatic,  philosophical 
or  even  ethical  system  so  much  as  it  was  an  emotional 
experience.  "These  hymns,"  says  Mr.  Allen  in  his  intro- 
duction to  "Slave  Songs  of  the  United  States,"  "will  be 
found  peculiarly  interesting  in  illustrating  the  feelings, 
opinions  and  habits  of  the  slaves.  .  .  .  One  of  their 
customs,  often  alluded  to  in  the  songs,  ...  is  that  of 
wandering  through  the  woods  and  swamps  when  under 
religious  excitement,  like  the  ancient  bacchantes."  "Al- 
most all  their  songs  were  thoroughly  religious  in  their 
tone,"  says  Colonel  Higginson,  "and  were  in  a  minor  key, 
both  as  to  words  and  music.  The  attitude  is  always  the 
same,  and,  as  a  commentary  on  the  life  of  the  race,  is 
infinitely  pathetic.    Nothing  but  patience  for  this  life — 

[     29    1 


AFRO-AMERICAN   FOLKSONGS 

nothing  but  triumph  in  the  next.  Sometimes  the  present 
predominates,  sometimes  the  future;  but  the  combination 
is  always  implied.''^ 

"Though  the  words  are  sometimes  rude  and  the  strains 
often  wild,  yet  they  are  the  outpourings  of  an  ignorant  and 
poverty-stricken  people,  whose  religious  language  and  ideals 
struggled  for  expression  and  found  it  through  limited 
vocabularies  and  primitive  harmonies.  They  are  not 
merely  poetry,  they  are  life  itself — the  life  of  the  human 
soul  manifesting  itself  in  rude  words,  wild  strains  and 
curious,  though  beautiful  harmonies,"  says  Robert  R. 
Moton,  commandant  of  Hampton  Institute.  Booker  T. 
Washington  bears  this  testimony:  "The  negro  folksong  has 
for  the  negro  race  the  same  value  that  the  folksong  of 
any  other  people  has  for  that  people.  It  reminds  the  race 
of  the  *rock  whence  it  was  hewn,'  it  fosters  race  pride,  and 
in  the  days  of  slavery  it  furnished  an  outlet  for  the  anguish 
of  smitten  hearts.  .  .  .  The  plantation  songs  known 
as  the  'spirituals'  are  the  spontaneous  outbursts  of  intense 
religious  fervor,  and  had  their  origin  chiefly  in  the  camp- 
meetings,  the  revivals,  and  in  other  religious  exercises. 
They  breathe  a  childlike  faith  in  a  personal  Father  and 
glow  with  the  hope  that  the  children  of  bondage  will  ulti- 
mately pass  out  of  the  wilderness  of  slavery  into  the  land 
of  freedom." 

Writing  in  "The  Century  Magazine"  for  August,  1899, 
Marion  Alexander  Haskell  said:  "The  musical  talent  of 
the  uneducated  negro  finds  almost  its  only  expression  in 
religious  song,  and  for  this  there  is  a  simple  explanation. 
A  race  strongly  imbued  with  religious  sentiment,  one  rarely 
finds  among  them  an  adult  who  has  not  gone  through  that 
emotional  experience  known  as  conversion,  after  which 
it  is  considered  vanity  and  sinfulness  to  indulge  in  song 
other  than  that  of  a  sacred  character.     The  new-found  child 

*  Concerning  the  prevalent  mode  of  the  songs  Colonel  Higginson  is 
in  error;  they  are  predominantly  major,  not  minor.  The  mistake  is  a  common 
one  among  persons  who  have  no  technical  training  in  music  and  who  have 
been  taught  that  suffering  always  expresses  itself  in  the  minor  mode.  A 
great  majority  of  those  who  write  about  savage  or  primitive  music  generally 
set  it  down  as  minor  whenever  it  has  a  melancholy  cast. 

f     30    1 


RELIGIOUS   CHARACTER  OF  THE  SONGS 


You  May  Bury  Me  in  the  East 

Andante  sostennto  p- 


How  I     long-     to   g-o   for  to    hear  the  trumpet  sound    in  that  monx-iAg-. 


Father  Gabriel  in  that  day, 
Hell  take  wing's  and  fly  away, 
For  to  hear  the  trumpet  sound 

In  that  morning-,  etc. 
You  may  bury  him,  etc. 


3.  Good  old  Christians  in  that  day, 
They'll  take  wing^s  and  fly  away, 

etc. 

4.  Good  old  preachers  in  that  day. 
They'll  take  winffS,  etc. 


5.  In  that  dreadful  judgment-day 
I'll  take  wing-s,  etc. 

Arranged  for.men's  voices  for  the  Mendelssohn  dee  Clob  of  New  York  by  Arthor  Mees;  pub- 
lished here  by  permission. 


[    31    ] 


AFRO-AMERICAN   FOLKSONGS 

of  the  church  knows  but  little  of  that  which  he  must  forgo, 
for  his  mother  before  him  sang  only  spirituals,  and  to  these 
he  naturally  turns  as  to  old  friends  whom  his  own  religious 
experiences  have  clothed  in  new  dignity  and  light." 

There  is  nothing  strange  in  the  fact  that  the  original 
collectors  of  slave  songs  and  later  students  of  slave  life 
in  America  should  thus  recognize  the  psychological  origin 
of  negro  song,  for  they  were  familiar  with  the  phenomena 
which  accompanied  it;  but  it  is  worthy  of  note  that  a 
foreigner,  who  approached  the  subject  on  its  scientific  and 
artistic  side  only  and  to  whom  all  such  phenomena  must 
have  seemed  strange,  should  have  been  equally  apprecia- 
tive. In  his  monograph,  '*La  Musique  chez  les  Peuples 
indigenes  de  TAmerique  du  Nord,"  M.  Julien  Tiersot, 
after  describing  a  campmeeting  as  he  had  learned  to  know 
it  from  the  descriptions  of  others,  says: 

It  is  indubitable,  as  all  who  have  made  a  special  study  of  the  question 
agree,  that  it  is  in  these  superheated  religious  assemblies  that  the  most  genuine 
{plus  clair)  songs  in  the  negro  repertory  had  their  origin.  They  use  them  on 
all  occasions.  Like  all  peoples  of  low  culture,  the  negroes  accompany  their 
manual  labors  with  song.  Noteworthy  are  the  "corn  songs,"  which  are  sung 
in  the  harvest  season  to  stimulate  the  gathering  of  the  grain.  The  efficiency 
of  these  songs  is  so  well  recognized  that  the  owners  of  the  plantations  pay 
extra  wages  to  singers  capable  of  leading  the  chorus  of  laborers.  These  songs, 
however,  have  no  distinctive  character;  they  are  religious  hymns.  The  same 
holds  true  of  the  songs  sung  by  negroes  for  their  diversion,  when  at  rest  in 
their  cabins,  in  the  family  circle  or  for  the  dance.  Such  a  use  need  not  surprise 
us  when  we  have  seen  their  religious  meetings  degenerate  into  dishevelled 
dances  under  the  influence  of  the  same  songs.  It  is  the  hymn  which  must 
sanctify  the  dance.  Carefully  do  they  guard  it  against  any  admixture  of  the 
profane  element!  A  superstitous  dread  in  this  regard  is  another  convincing 
proof  of  how  completely  they  have  forgotten  their  African  origin.  They  would 
believe  themselves  damned  were  they  to  repeat  the  songs  of  paganism;  to 
do  this  would,  in  their  eyes,  be  to  commit  original  and  unpardonable  sin. 

The  "dishevelled  dance"  to  which  M.  Tiersot  alludes 
is  the  "shout"  which  in  the  days  of  slavery  flourished 
chiefly  in  South  Carolina  and  the  States  south  of  it. 
**It  appears  to  be  found  in  Florida,"  says  Mr.  Allen  in  his 
preface  to  'Slave  Songs,'  "but  not  in  North  Carolina  or 
Virginia."  I  have  a  hymn  taken  down  from  the  lips  of 
an  old  slave  woman  in  Kentucky  which  the  collector^ 
designated  as  a  "shout,"  and  it  is  probable  that  the  custom 
was  more  widely  extended  than  Mr.  Allen  and  his  collabora- 

*Miss  Mildred  J.  Hill,  of  Louisville,  to  whom  I  am  indebted  for  several 
interesting  specimens. 

f     32    1 


RELIGIOUS    CHARACTER  OF  THE  SONGS 

tors,  who  gleaned  chiefly  in  South  Carolina  and  the  Gulf 
States,  knew.  Mr.  Allen  refers  to  the  fact  that  the  term 
*^shouting"  is  used  in  Virginia  "in  reference  to  a  peculiar 
motion  of  the  body  not  wholly  unlike  the  Carolina  shout- 
ing." Very  keenly  he  surmises,  too,  that  it  "is  not  unlikely 
that  this  remarkable  religious  ceremony  is  a  relic  of  some 
native  African  dance,  as  the  Romaika  is  of  the  classic 
Pyrrhic."  A  secular  parody  of  it  can  easily  be  recalled  by 
all  persons  who  remember  the  old-fashioned  minstrel  shows, 
for  it  was  perpetuated  in  the  so-called  "walk-around"  of 
those  entertainments.  "Dixie,"  which  became  the  war- 
song  of  the  Southrons  during  the  War  of  the  Rebellion,  was 
written  by  Dan  Emmet  as  a  "walk-around"  for  Bryant's 
Minstrels  in  1859.  I  shall  let  an  eyewitness  describe  the 
"shout."  It  is  a  writer  in  "The  Nation"  of  May  30,  1 867 : 

There  is  a  ceremony  which  the  white  clergymen  are  inclined  to  discoun- 
tenance, and  even  of  the  colored  elders  some  of  the  more  discreet  try  sometimes 
to  put  on  a  face  of  discouragement;  and,  although  if  pressed  for  Biblical 
warrant  for  the  "shout,"  they  generally  seem  to  think,  "he  in  de  Book,"  or, 
"he  dere-da  in  Matchew,"  still  it  is  not  considered  blasphemous  or  improper 
if  "de  chillen"  and  "dem  young  gal"  carry  it  on  in  the  evening  for  amuse- 
ment's sake,  and  with  no  well-defined  intention  of  "praise."  But  the  true 
"shout"  takes  place  on  Sundays,  or  on  "praise"  nights  through  the  week,  and 
either  in  the  praise-house  or  in  some  cabin  in  which  a  regular  religious  meeting 
has  been  held.  Very  likely  more  than  half  the  population  of  a  plantation  is 
gathered  together.  Let  it  be  the  evening,  and  a  light  wood  fire  burns  red 
before  the  door  of  the  house  and  on  the  hearth.  For  some  time  one  can  hear, 
though  at  a  good  distance,  the  vociferous  exhortation  or  prayer  of  the  pre- 
siding elder  or  of  the  brother  who  has  a  gift  that  way  and  is  not  "on  the  back 
seat" — a  phrase  the  interpretation  of  which  is  "under  the  censure  of  the 
church  authorities  for  bad  behavior" — and  at  regular  intervals  one  hears 
the  elder  "deaconing"  a  hymnbook  hymn,  which  is  sung  two  lines  at  a 
time  and  whose  wailing  cadences,  borne  on  the  night  air,  are  indescribably 
melancholy. 

But  the  benches  are  pushed  back  to  the  wall  when  the  formal  meeting  is 
over,  and  old  and  young,  men  and  women,  sprucely  dressed  young  men, 
grotesquely  half-clad  field  hands — the  women  generally  with  gay  handker- 
chiefs twisted  about  their  heads  and  with  short  skirts — boys  with  tattered 
shirts  and  men's  trousers,  young  girls  bare-footed,  all  stand  up  in  the  middle 
of  the  floor,  and  when  the  "sperichil"  is  struck  up  begin  first  walking  and 
by  and  by  shuffling  around,  one  after  the  other,  in  a  ring.  The  foot  is  hardly 
taken  from  the  floor,  and  the  progression  is  mainly  due  to  a  jerking,  hitching 
motion  which  agitates  the  entire  shouter  and  soon  brings  out  streams  of 
perspiration.  Sometimes  they  dance  silently,  sometimes  as  they  shuffle  they 
sing  the  chorus  of  the  spiritual,  and  sometimes  the  song  itself  is  also  sung  by 
the  dancers.  But  more  frequently  a  band,  composed  of  some  of  the  best 
singers  and  of  tired  shouters,  stand  at  the  side  of  the  room  to  "base"  the  others, 
singing  the  body  of  the  song  and  clapping  their  hands  together  or  on  the  knees. 
Song  and  dance  are  alike  extremely  energetic,  and  often,  when  the  shout 
lasts  into  the  middle  of  the  night,  the  monotonous  thud,  thud  of  the  feet  pre- 
vents sleep  within  half  a  mile  of  the  praise-house. 

f     33     1 


AFRO-AMERICAN  FOLKSONGS 

The  editors  of  "Slave  Songs"  were  liberal-minded  per- 
sons, who,  though  engaged  in  philanthropic  work  in  behalf 
of  the  freedmen,  were  prompted  by  cultural  rather  than 
religious  motives  in  directing  attention  to  negro  songs. 
They  deplored  the  fact  that  circumstances  made  the  col- 
lection almost  wholly  religious.  Mr.  Allen  wrote :  "I 
never  fairly  heard  a  secular  song  among  the  Port  Royal 
freedmen,  and  never  saw  a  musical  instrument  among 
them.  The  last  violin,  owned  by  a  'worldly  man,'  dis- 
appeared from  Coffin's  Point  Me  year  gun  shoot  at  Bay 
Pint'  (i.  e.,  November,  1861).  In  other  parts  of  the  South 
'fiddle  sings,'  'devil  songs,'  'corn  songs,'  'jig  tunes'  and 
what  not,  are  common;  all  the  world  knows  the  banjo  and 
the  'Jim  Crow'  songs  of  thirty  years  ago.  We  have  succeed- 
ed in  obtaining  only  a  very  few  songs  of  this  character. 
Our  intercourse  with  the  colored  people  has  been  chiefly 
through  the  work  of  the  Freedmen's  Commission,  which 
deals  with  the  serious  and  earnest  side  of  the  negro  char- 
acter"; and,  discussing  the  "civilized"  character  of  the 
songs  which  he  prints,  he  says:  "It  is  very  likely  that  if 
we  had  found  it  possible  to  get  at  more  of  their  se- 
cular music  we  should  have  come  to  another  con- 
clusion as  to  the  proportion  of  the  barbaric  element." 
Then  he  makes  room  for  a  letter  from  "a  gentleman 
from  Delaware,"  who  makes  a  number  of  shrewd  obser- 
vations, as  thus: 

We  must  look  among  their  non-religious  songs  for  the  purest  specimens 
of  negro  minstrelsy.  It  is  remarkable  that  they  have  themselves  transferred 
the  best  of  these  to  the  uses  of  their  churches,  I  suppose  on  Mr.  Wesley's 
principle  that  "it  is  not  right  that  the  devil  should  have  all  the  good  tunes." 
Their  leaders  and  preachers  have  not  found  this  change  difficult  to  effect,  or 
at  least  they  have  taken  so  little  pains  about  it  that  one  often  detects  the 
profane  cropping  out  and  revealing  the  origin  of  their  most  solemn  "hymns" 
in  spite  of  the  best  intentions  of  the  poet  and  artist.  Some  of  the  best  pure 
negro  songs  I  have  ever  heard  were  those  that  used  to  be  sung  by  the  black 
stevedores,  or  perhaps  the  crews  themselves,  of  the  West  India  vessels, 
loading  and  unloading  at  the  wharves  in  Philadelphia  and  Baltimore.  I 
have  stood  for  more  than  an  hour,  often,  listening  to  them  as  they  hoisted 
and  lowered  the  hogsheads  and  boxes  of  their  cargoes,  one  man  taking  the 
burden  of  the  song  (and  the  slack  of  the  rope)  and  the  others  striking  in  with 
the  chorus.  They  would  sing  in  this  way  more  than  a  dozen  different  songs 
in  an  hour,  most  of  which  might,  indeed,  be  warranted  to  contain  "nothing 
religious" — a  few  of  them,  "on  the  contrary,  quite  the  reverse" — but  gener- 
ally rather  innocent  and  proper  in  their  language  and  strangely  attractive 
in  their  music. 

[     34     1 


RELIGIOUS   CHARACTER  OF  THE  SONGS 

A  generation  ago  songs  of  the  character  described  here 
were  still  to  be  heard  from  the  roustabouts  of  the  Missis- 
sippi and  Ohio  rivers,  and  two  of  them,  together  with  a 
paddle  song  dating  back  to  the  time  of  the  Acadians, 
showing  unique  characteristics,  will  be  discussed  later. 

M.  Tiersot's  generalizations  on  negro  music,  to  which, 
it  may  be  said,  he  denies  all  African  attributes  because  the 
blacks  have  forgotten  the  language  and  customs  of  their 
ancestors,  were  based  chiefly  on  reports  of  plantation  life 
in  which  old  French  and  Spanish  influences  were  less 
potent  than  English.  He  recognizes  the  existence  of  a 
species  of  dance-song  in  which  French  influences  have 
been  predominantly  formative,  however,  and  discusses 
them  in  an  interesting  and  instructive  manner.  They  are 
the  patois  songs  of  the  black  Creoles  of  Louisiana,  concern- 
ing which  I  shall  have  something  to  say  in  due  time.  They 
are  songs  of  sentiment  and  songs  of  satire — the  latter 
characteristic,  I  believe,  a  relic  of  their  African  source. 
There  is  another,  smaller,  body  of  songs  outside  of  the 
religious  domain  to  which  the  spirituals  give  expression 
which  would,  I  am  convinced,  have  been  of  large  value  in 
proving  the  persistence  of  African  idioms  in  exotic  Ameri- 
can songs  if  it  had  been  possible  to  obtain  a  sufficient 
number  of  them  to  make  a  comparative  study  possible.  Un- 
fortunately this  is  not  the  case,  and  I  very  much  question 
whether  it  will  ever  be  done.  The  investigation  has  been 
postponed  too  long.  The  opportunity  would  have  been 
incalculably  greater  half  a  century  ago,  when  the  subject 
was  new.  I  made  an  efl"ort  to  get  some  of  these  songs 
thirty-five  years  or  so  ago,  when  much  more  of  this  music 
was  in  existence  than  now,  and,  though  I  had  the  help 
of  so  enthusiastic  a  folklorist  as  the  late  Lafcadio  Hearn, 
they  eluded  me.  A  few  specimens  came  into  my  hands, 
but  they  proved  to  be  of  no  musical  value,  chiefly  because 
it  was  obvious  that  they  had  not  been  correctly  transcribed. 

The  songs  in  question  are  those  which  were  consorted 
with  the  mysterious  voodoo  rites  practised  by  the  blacks, 
who  clung  to  a  species  of  snake-worship  which  had  been 
brought  over  from  Africa.     The  preservation  of  relics  of 

[     35    ] 


AFRO-AMERICAN   FOLKSONGS 

this  superstitious  worship  until  a  comparatively  late  date 
was  no  doubt  due  to  the  negroes  who  had  been  brought 
into  American  territory  long  after  the  abolition  of  the  slave 
trade.  At  the  outbreak  of  the  War  of  the  Rebellion  the 
number  of  these  people  was  by  no  means  inconsiderable. 
Though  the  slave  trade  was  abolished  by  the  United 
States  in  1808  and  those  who  followed  it  were  declared 
pirates  in  1820,  negroes  brought  over  from  Africa  were 
smuggled  into  the  States  by  way  of  the  Antilles  for  many 
years.  It  was  not  until  1861  that  a  trader  was*  convicted 
under  the  law  and  hanged  in  New  York.  As  late  as  1888 
Professor  Edwards,  describing  the  negro  inhabitants  of  the 
Bahamas,  who  had  already  enjoyed  freedom  for  more  than 
fifty  years,  could  write:  **There  lives  yet  in  Green  Turtle 
Cay  one  old  negro,  *Unc'  Yawk,'  who,  bowing  his  grizzled 
head,  will  tell  you,  *Yah,  I  wa'  fum  Haf  ca.'  " 

It  is  well  to  remember  facts  like  these  when  it  is  urged, 
as  it  is  even  by  so  good  a  musical  folklorist  as  M.  Tiersot, 
that  African  relics  are  not  to  be  sought  for  in  the  music  of 
the  American  negroes  because  they  have  forgotten  the 
languages  (not  language)  of  their  African  ancestors.  In  the 
songs  which  have  been  heard  by  the  few  people  who  have 
left  us  accounts  of  the  voodoo  rites,  African  words  are 
used,  though  their  meaning  has  been  lost.  The  phenomenon 
is  not  at  all  singular.  Plato  found  the  Egyptian  priests 
using  in  their  prayers,  instead  of  words,  the  sacred  vowels 
of  their  language,  which  they  said  had  been  taught  their 
ancestors  by  Isis  and  Osiris.  Buddhist  monks  in  China, 
I  have  been  told,  still  recite  prayers  in  Sanskrit,  though  they 
do  not  understand  a  single  word;  small  wonder,  for  nearly 
two  thousand  years  have  passed  since  Buddhism  was  intro- 
duced into  China  from  India.  The  Gothic  Christians  at  the 
time  of  the  venerable  Bede  recited  the  Lord's  Prayer  in 
Greek.  Is  it  difficult  to  understand  what  this  means  ? 
Religion  is  a  wonderful  conservator.  A  greater  sanc- 
tity attaches  in  worship  to  sounds  than  to  words,  for  the 
first  prayers  were  exclamations  which  came  straight  from 
the  emotions — not  words,  but  musical  cries.  It  is  for  this 
reason  that  sacred   music  endures  longer  than  articulate 

[     36    1 


RELIGIOUS  CHARACTER  OF  THE  SONGS 

speech.  A  veneration  which  is  very  much  akin  to  super- 
stition clings  to  both  words  and  music  in  many  organized 
religious  systems  to-day.  Would  it  be  irreverent  to  account 
on  this  ground  for  the  attitude  of  the  Pope  and  the  Congre- 
gation of  Rites  toward  the  Gregorian  Chant  ?  Why  is  the 
effort  making  to  ignore  the  wise  reforms  of  the  sixteenth 
century  and  revert  to  the  forms  of  the  tenth?  Since  it 
is  more  than  likely  that  the  old  dances  and  superstitious 
rites  of  African  peoples  have  left  an  impress  upon  the 
music  of  their  descendants  in  America,  regard  must  be 
had  for  these  things,  even  though  we  must  forgo  such 
an  analytical  study  of  the  music  as  we  should  like  to  make. 
In  1878,  while  Lafcadio  Hearn  and  I  were  collaborating 
in  an  effort  to  gather  material  for  a  study  of  creole  music, 
I  sent  him  (he  was  then  living  in  New  Orleans)  the  words 
of  a  song  which  I  had  got — I  do  not  remember  where — 
for  interpretation.    In  reply  he  wrote: 

Your  friend  is  right,  no  doubt,  about  the 
"  Tig,  tig,  malaboin 
La  chelema  che  tango 
Redjoum!" 
I  asked  my  black  nurse  what  it  meant.     She  only  laughed  and  shook  her 
head:  "Mais  c'est  Voudoo,  9a;  je  n'en  sais  rien!"     "Well,"  said  I,  "don't  you 
know  anything  about  Voudoo  songs?"    "Yes,"  she  answered;  "I  know  Voudoo 
songs;  but  I  can't  tell  you  what  they  mean."     And  she  broke  out  into  the 
wildest,  weirdest  ditty  I  ever  heard.    I  tried  to  write  down  the  words;  but  as 
I  did  not  know  what  they  meant  I  had  to  write  by  sound  alone,  spelling  the 
words  according  to  the  French  pronunciation. 

He  sent  me  the  words  and  also  the  words  of  a  creole 
love-song,  whose  words  ran  like  this:  "Beautiful  American, 
I  love  thee!  Beautiful  American,  I  am  going  to  Havana 
to  cut  sugar-cane  to  give  thee  money.  I  am  going  to 
Havana,  friends,  to  cut  sugar-cane,  friends,  to  give  thee 
money,  beautiful  woman,  Cesaire!  I  love  thee,  beautiful 
American!"  He  got  a  German  amateur  musician  to  write 
down  the  music  to  both  songs  for  him,  but  it  was  from  his 
singing  that  the  transcription  was  made,  and  when  it  was 
repeated  to  him  he  found  it  incorrect.  Hearn  was  not 
musical.  "As  I  heard  it  sung  the  voodoo  melody  was 
really  weird,  although  simple,"  he  wrote  me  afterward; 
"there  were  such  curious  linkings  of  long  notes  to  short 
with    microscopic   ones.     The  other,  *Belle   Americaine,' 

[     37    ] 


AFRO-AMERICAN   FOLKSONGS 

seemed  to  me  pretty,  but  G.  has  put  only  two  notes  where 
I  heard  five  distinctly."  The  nurse  who  sang  for  him  was 
Louise  Roche,  "an  old  black  woman  of  real  African  blood, 
an  ex-slave  having  many  tales  of  terror,  suspected  of 
voodooism,  etc." 

Much  later  (it  was  in  1885),  when  I  was  contemplating  a 
cooperation  with  Mr.  George  W.  Cable  in  the  articles 
which  he  published  in  the  "Century  Magazine"  for  Feb- 
ruary and  April,  1886,  on  creole  songs  and  dances,  Hearn 
wrote : 

I  fear  I  know  nothing  about  Creole  music  or  Creole  negroes.  Yes,  I  have 
seen  them  dance;  but  they  danced  the  Congo  and  sang  a  purely  African  song 
to  the  accompaniment  of  a  drygoods  box  beaten  with  sticks  or  bones  and  a 
drum  made  by  stretching  a  skin  over  a  flour  barrel.  That  sort  of  accompani- 
ment and  that  sort  of  music  you  know  all  about;  it  is  precisely  similar  to  what 
a  score  of  travellers  have  described.  There  are  no  harmonies — only  a  furious 
contretemps.  As  for  the  dance — in  which  the  women  do  not  take  their  feet 
off  the  ground — it  is  as  lascivious  as  is  possible.  The  men  dance  very  different- 
ly, like  savages,  leaping  in  the  air.  I  spoke  of  this  spectacle  in  my  short 
article  in  the  "Century."     .     .     . 

The  Creole  songs  which  I  have  heard  sung  in  the  city  are  Frenchy  in 
construction,  but  possess  a  few  African  characteristics  of  method.  The  darker 
the  singer,  the  more  marked  the  oddities  of  intonation.  Unfortunately,  the 
most  of  those  I  have  heard  were  quadroons  or  mulattoes.  One  black  woman 
sang  me  a  Voudoo  song,  which  I  got  Cable  to  write — but  I  could  not  sing  it 
as  she  sang  it,  so  that  the  music  is  faulty.  I  suppose  you  have  seen  it  already, 
as  it  forms  part  of  the  collection. 

It  was  about  this  time  (February,  1884,  unless  I  am 
deceived  by  a  postmark)  that  Hearn  conceived  the  idea 
of  a  book  on  negro  music,  of  which  we  were  to  be  joint 
authors.  He  was  to  write  "a  long  preface  and  occasional 
picturesque  notes"  to  what  he  called  my  "learning  and 
facts."  He  outlined  what  he  would  put  in  the  preface: 
He  would  begin  by  treating  of  the  negro's  musical  pat- 
riotism— "the  strange  history  of  the  griots,  who  furnish 
so  singular  an  example  of  musical  prostitution,  and  who, 
though  honored  and  petted  on  one  way,  are  otherwise 
despised  by  their  own  people  and  refused  rites  of  burial." 
Then  he  proposed  to  relate: 

Something  about  the  curious  wanderings  of  these  griots  through  the  yellow 
desert  northward  into  the  Maghreb  country,  often  a  solitary  wandering; 
their  performances  at  Arab  camps  on  the  long  journey,  when  the  black  slaves 
came  out  to  listen  and  weep;  then  the  hazardous  voyage  into  Constantinople, 
where  they  play  old  Congo  airs  for  the  great  black  population  of  Stamboul, 
whom  no  laws  or  force  can  keep  within  doors  when  the  sound  of  griot  music  is 
heard  in  the  street.    Then  I  would  speak  of  how  the  blacks  carry  their  music 

[     38    1 


RELIGIOUS  CHARACTER  OF  THE   SONGS 

with  them  to  Persia  and  even  to  mysterious  Hadramant,  where  their  voices 
are  held  in  high  esteem  by  Arab  masters.  Then  I  would  touch  upon  the 
transplantation  of  negro  melody  to  the  Antilles  and  the  two  Americas,  where 
its  strangest  black  flowers  are  gathered  by  the  alchemists  of  musical  science 
and  the  perfume  thereof  extracted  by  magicians  like  Gottschalk.  (How  is 
that  for  a  beginning?) 

Having  advanced  thus  far  Hearn  proposed  to  show  a 
relation  between  physiology  and  negro  music,  and  he  put 
upon  me  the  burden  of  finding  out  whether  or  not  the 
negro's  vocal  cords  were  differently  formed  and  "capable 
of  longer  vibrations"  than  those  of  white  people.  He  had 
been  led  into  this  branch  of  the  subject  by  the  observation, 
which  he  found  in  some  book,  that  the  blood  of  the  Afri- 
can black  "has  the  highest  human  temperature  known — 
equal  to  that  of  the  swallow — though  it  loses  that  fire 
in  America."  I  must  have  been  lukewarm  in  the  matter 
of  the  project  which  he  outlined  with  great  enthusiasm, 
despairing,  as  naturally  a  sobersided  student  of  folk-music 
who  believed  in  scientific  methods  would,  of  being  able 
to  make  the  physical  data  keep  pace  with  so  riotous  an 
imagination  as  that  of  my  fantastical  friend.  I  did  not 
even  try  to  find  a  colored  subject  for  the  dissecting  table  or 
ask  for  a  laryngoscopical  examination  of  the  vocal  cords 
of  the  "Black  Patti."  His  enthusiasm  and  method  in  our 
joint  work  are  strikingly  illustrated  in  another  part  of  the 
same  letter.  As  has  been  intimated,  we  were  looking  for 
unmistakable  African  relics  in  the  Creole  songs  of  Louisiana: 

Here  Is  the  only  Creole  song  I  know  of  with  an  African  refrain  that  is  still 
sung — don't  show  it  to  C,  it  is  one  of  our  treasures. 
(Pronounce  "wenday,"  "makkiah.") 

Ouende,  ouende,  macaya! 

Mo  pas  barrasse,  macaya! 
Ouende,  ouende,  macaya! 

Mo  bois  bon  divin,  macaya! 
Ouende,  ouende,  macaya! 

Mo  mange  bon  poulet,  macaya! 
Ouende,  ouende,  macaya! 

Mo  pas  barrasse,  macaya! 
Ouende,  ouende,  macaya! 
Macaya! 

I  wrote  from  the  dictation  of  Louise  Roche.  She  did  not  know  the  meaning 
of  the  refrain — her  mother  had  taught  her,  and  the  mother  had  learned  it 
from  the  grandmother.  However,  I  found  out  the  meaning,  and  asked  her 
if  she  now  remembered.  She  leaped  in  the  air  for  joy — apparently.  Ouendai, 
or  ouende,  has  a  different  meaning  in  the  eastern  Soudan;  but  in  the  Congo, 
or  Fiot,  dialect  it  means  "to  go,"  "to  continue  to,"  "to  go  on."    I  found  the 

r  39  1 


AFRO-AMERICAN    FOLKSONGS 

word  in  Jeannest's  vocabulary.     Then  macaya  I  found  in  Turiault's  **£tudc 
sur  la  Language  Creole  de  la   Martinique":  "9a  veut  dire  manger  tout  le 
temps" — "excessivement."     Therefore,  here  is  our  translation: 
Go  on!  go  on!  eat  enormously! 

I  ain't  one  bit  ashamed — eat  outrageously! 
Go  on!  go  on!  eat  prodigiously! 

I  drink  good  wine! — eat  ferociously! 
Go  on!  go  on!  eat  unceasingly! — 

I  eat  good  chicken — gorging  myself! 
Go  on!  go  on!  etc. 
How  is  this  for  a  linguistic  discovery.''    The  music  is  almost  precisely  like 
the  American  river  music — a   chant,   almost  a  recitative,  until  the  end  of 
the  line  is  reached:  then  for  your  mocking  music! 

There  is  a  hint  of  an  African  relic  in  the  allusion  to  the 
recitative-like  character  of  the  feasting  song,  as  we  shall 
see  when  we  come  to  inquire  into  the  structure  of  African 
music. 

For  a  description  of  the  voodoo  rites  I  draw,  hy  per- 
mission, upon  Mr.  George  W.  Cable's  article  on  "Creole 
Slave  Songs,"  which  appeared  in  "The  Century  Magazine" 
for  April,  1886: 

The  dance  and  song  entered  into  the  negro  worship.  That  worship  was  as 
dark  and  horrid  as  bestialized  savagery  could  make  the  adoration  of  serpents. 
So  revolting  was  it,  and  so  morally  hideous,  that  even  in  the  West  Indian  French 
possessions  a  hundred  years  ago,  with  the  slave  trade  in  full  blast,  and  the 
West  Indian  planter  and  slave  what  they  were,  the  orgies  of  the  voudoos 
were  forbidden. 

The  Aradas,  St.  Mery  tells  us,  introduced  them  from  their  homes  beyond 
the  Slave  Coast,  one  of  the  most  dreadfully  benighted  regions  of  all  Africa. 
He  makes  the  word  vaudau.  In  Louisiana  it  is  written  voudou  and  voodoo 
and  is  often  changed  on  the  negro's  lips  to  hoodoo.  It  is  the  name  of  an 
imaginary  being  of  vast  supernatural  powers,  residing  in  the  form  of  a  harmless 
snake.  This  spiritual  influence,  or  potency,  is  the  recognized  antagonist 
and  opposite  of  Obi,  the  great  African  manitou,  or  deity,  whom  the  Congos 
vaguely  generalize  as  Zombi.  In  Louisiana,  as  I  have  been  told  by  that  learned 
Creole  scholar,  the  late  Alexander  Dimitry,  Voodoo  bore,  as  a  title  of  greater 
solemnity,  the  additional  name  Maignan,  and  that  even  in  the  Calinda  dance, 
which  he  had  witnessed  innumerable  times,  was  sometimes  heard  at  the  height 
of  its  frenzy  the  invocation — 

"Aie!  Ale!  Voudoo  Maignan!'* 

The  worship  of  Voodoo  is  paid  to  a  snake  kept  in  a  box.  The  worshippers 
are  not  merely  a  sect,  but  in  some  rude,  savage  way,  also  an  order.  A  man  and 
woman,  chosen  from  their  own  number  to  be  the  oracles  of  the  serpent-deity, 
are  called  the  king  and  queen.  The  queen  is  the  more  important  of  the  two, 
and  even  in  the  present  dilapidated  state  of  the  worship  in  Louisiana,  where  the 
king's  oflBce  has  almost  or  quite  disappeared,  the  queen  is  still  a  person  of 
great  note.  It  (voodoo  worship)  long  ago  diminished  in  frequency  to  once  a 
year,  the  chosen  night  always  being  the  eve  of  St.  John.  For  several  years 
past  the  annual  celebrations  have  been  suspended;  but  in  the  summer  of 
1884  they  were — let  it  be  hoped  only  for  the  once — resumed.     .     .     . 

Now  a  new  applicant  for  membership  steps  into  the  circle.  There  are  a 
few  trivial  formalities  and  the  voodoo  dance  begins.  The  postulant  dances 
frantically  in  the  middle  of  the  ring,  only  pausing,  from  time  to  time,  to 

I     40    1 


RELIGIOUS    CHARACTER  OF  THE  SONGS 

receive  heavy  alchoHc  draughts  in  great  haste  and  return  more  wildly  to  his 
leapings  and  writhings  until  he  falls  in  convulsions.  He  is  lifted,  restored,  and 
presently  conducted  to  the  altar,  takes  his  oath,  and  by  a  ceremonial  stroke 
from  one  of  the  sovereigns  is  admitted  a  full  participant  in  the  privileges  and 
obligations  of  the  devilish  free  masonry.  But  the  dance  goes  on  about  the 
snake.  The  contortions  of  the  upper  part  of  the  body,  especially  of  the  neck 
and  shoulders,  are  such  as  to  threaten  to  dislocate  them.  The  queen  shakes 
the  box  and  tinkles  the  bells,  the  rum  bottle  gurgles,  the  chant  alternates 
between  king  and  chorus: 

"Eh!  Eh!  Bomba  hone,  hone! 
Canga  bafio  tay. 
Canga  moon  day  lay, 
Canga  do  keelah, 
Canga  li!" 

There  are  swoonings  and  ravings,  nervous  tremblings  beyond  control, 
incessant  writhings  and  turnings,  tearing  of  garments,  even  biting  of  the 
flesh — every  imaginable  invention  of  the  devil. 


t   41   1 


CHAPTER  IV 

MODAL   CHARACTERISTICS 
OF  THE  SONGS 


An   Analysis   of   Half  a  Thousand   Negro   Songs- 
Division    AS    TO    Modes — Overwhelming    Preva- 
lence OF  Major — Psychology  of  the  Pheno- 
menon— Music  as  a  Stimulus  to  Work — 
Songs  of  the  Fieldhands  and  Rowers. 


To  lay  a  foundation  for  a  discussion  of  the  idioms  of  the 
folksongs  created  by  the  American  negroes  I  have  examined 
527  negro  songs  found  in  six  collections,  five  of  which  have 
appeared  in  print.  Of  these  five  collections,  four  are 
readily  accessible  to  the  student.  The  titles  of  the  printed 
collections  are  : 

"Slave  Songs  of  the  United  States,"  edited  by  William 
Francis  Allen,  Charles  Pickard  Ware  and  Lucy  McKim 
Garrison;  published  by  A.  Simpson  &  Co.,  New  York, 
1867.  This  work,  by  far  the  most  valuable  and  compen- 
dious source,  as  it  is  the  earliest,  is  out  of  print  and  difficult 
to  obtain. 

"The  Story  of  the  Jubilee  Singers,  with  Their  Songs," 
by  J.  B.  T.  Marsh.  Published  by  Houghton,  Osgood  &  Co., 
Boston,  1880.  This  is  a  revised  edition  of  two  earlier 
publications,  the  music  arranged  by  Theodore  F.  Seward 
and  George  L.  White,  of  which  the  first  was  printed  by 
Bigelow  &  Main,  New  York,  in  1872. 

"Religious  Folk  Songs  of  the  Negroes  as  Sung  on  the 
Plantations,"  arranged  by  the  musical  directors  of  the 
Hampton  Normal  and  Agricultural  Institute  from  the 
original  edition  of  Thomas  P.  Fenner.  Published  by  the 
Institute  Press,  Hampton,  Va.,  1909.  The  original  edition, 
entitled  "Cabin  and  Plantation  Songs  as  Sung  by  the 
Hampton  Students,"  was  published  in  1874;  ^^  enlarged 
edition  by  Thomas  P.  Fenner  and  Frederic  G.  Rathbun, 
by  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons,  New  York,  in  1891. 

[     42     ] 


MODAL  CHARACTERISTICS   OF   THE  SONGS 

"Bahama  Songs  and  Stories.  A  Contribution  to  Folk- 
Lore,"  by  Charles  L.  Edwards,  Ph.  D.  Boston  and  New 
York,  published  for  the  American  Folk-Lore  Society  by 
Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.,  1895. 

"Calhoun  Plantation  Songs,"  collected  and  edited  by 
Emily  Hallowell;  first  edition,  1901;  second  edition,  1907; 
Boston,  C.  W.  Thompson  &  Co. 

These  books,  as  well  as  the  author's  private  collection, 
have  been  drawn  on  not  so  much  to  show  the  beauty  and 
wealth  of  negro  folksong  as  to  illustrate  its  varied  charac- 
teristics. An  analysis  of  the  527  songs  in  respect  of  the 
intervallic  structure  of  their  melodies  is  set  forth  in  the 
following  table: 

Ordinary  major 331 

Ordinary  minor 62 

Mixed  and  vague 23 

Pentatonic Ill 

Major  with  flatted  seventh 20 

Major  without  seventh 78 

Major  without  fourth 45 

Minor  with  raised  sixth 8 

Minor  without  sixth 34 

Minor  with  raised  seventh  (leading-tone) 19 

"Almost  all  their  songs  were  religious  in  their  tone, 
however  quaint  their  expression,  and  were  in  a  minor 
key,  both  as  to  words  and  music,"  wrote  Colonel  Higgin- 
son,  in  "The  Atlantic  Monthly." — "They  that  walked  in 
darkness  sang  songs  in  the  olden  days — sorrow  songs — 
for  they  were  weary  at  heart.  .  .  .  They  (the  songs) 
are  the  music  of  an  unhappy  people,  of  the  children  of 
disappointment;  and  they  tell  of  death  and  suffering  and 
unvoiced  longing  toward  a  truer  world,  of  misty  wander- 
ings and  hidden  ways,"  says  Dr.  Du  Bois,  in  "The  Souls 
of  Black  Folk." — "A  tinge  of  sadness  pervades  all  the  melo- 
dies, which  bear  as  little  resemblance  to  the  popular 
Ethiopian  melodies  of  the  day  as  twilight  to  noonday," 
wrote  Mr.  Spaulding,  in  "The  Continental  Monthly." 
Mr.  Allen,  in  his  preface  to  "Slave  Songs,"  avoids  musical 
terminology  as  much  as  possible,  and  has  nothing  to  say 
about  the  modes  of  the  melodies  which  he  records,  though 
his  description  of  the  manner  of  singing  and  some  of  the 
peculiarities  of  intonation,  in  which  I  recognize  character- 

f     43     1 


AFRO-AMERICAN    FOLKSONGS 

istic  idioms  of  the  music,  is  so  lucid  as  to  enable  a  scientific 
student  to  form  definite  conclusions  on  technical  points 
with  ease.  Colonel  Higginson  evidently  did  not  intend 
that  the  word  "minor"  should  have  any  other  than  its  con- 
ventional literary  meaning,  which  makes  it  a  synonym  for 
melancholy.  The  musical  terminology  of  explorers,  as 
has  been  remarked,  is  not  to  be  depended  on,  and  little 
is  to  be  learned  from  them  as  to  the  prevailing  modal 
characteristics  of  the  music  of  the  many  peoples  of  Africa. 
Hermann  Soyaux,  in  his  "Aus  West-Afrika,"  says  that  the 
negroes  of  Sierra  Leone  always  sing  in  minor.  Friedrich 
Ratzel  says  that  the  Bongo  negroes  sometimes  sing  in 
minor.  "Their  style,"  says  Richard  F.  Burton,  in  the 
"Lake  Regions  of  Central  Africa,"  "is  the  recitative 
broken  by  a  full  chorus,  and  they  appear  to  affect  the 
major  rather  than  the  interminable  minor  of  the  Asiatic." 
Carl  Engel,  in  his  "Introduction  to  the  Study  of  National 
Music,"  gives  it  out  as  a  generalization  that  most  of  the 
African  melodies  are  major.  Of  the  seven  African  melodies 
which  Coleridge-Taylor  utilized  in  "Twenty-four  Negro 
Melodies,"  five  are  major,  two  minor.  Of  the  527  melo- 
dies analyzed  in  the  above  table,  less  than  12  per  cent  are 
minor,  the  remainder  either  major  or  pentatonic,  with  a 
slight  infusion,  negligible  at  this  stage  of  the  argument,  of 
melodies  in  which  the  mode  is  unpronounced. 

It  is  plain,  therefore,  either  that  the  popular  conception, 
which  I  have  permitted  to  stand  with  a  qualification,  of  the 
minor  mode  as  a  symbol  of  suffering,  is  at  fault  in  respect 
of  the  folksongs  of  the  American  negroes,  or  that  these  songs 
are  not  so  poignant  an  expression  of  the  life  of  the  black 
slaves  as  has  been  widely  assumed.  The  question  deserves 
looking  into.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  musicians  know  that  the 
major  and  minor  modes  are  not  unqualified  expressions 
of  pleasure  and  pain,  gayety  and  gravity,  happiness  and 
sorrow.  Funeral  marches  are  never  expressions  of  joy, 
yet  great  funeral  marches  have  been  written  in  the  major 
mode — HandePs  Dead  March  in  "Saul"  for  instance — and 
some  of  the  maddest  scherzos  are  minor.  It  may  be 
questioned,  too,  whether  or  not,  as  a  matter  of  fact  (the 

[    44    1 


MODAL  CHARACTERISTICS  OF  THE  SONGS 

physiological  and  psychological  explanation  of  which  is 
not  within  the  scope  of  this  study),  the  life  of  the  black 
slaves  was,  on  the  whole,  so  weighted  with  physical  and 
spiritual  suffering  as  necessarily  to  make  its  musical  ex- 
pression one  of  hopeless  grief.  Perhaps  an  innate  lightness 
of  heart  and  carelessness  of  disposition,  carefully  cultivated 
by  the  slaveholders  for  obvious  reasons,  had  much  to  do 
with  the  circumstance  that  there  are  few  utterances  of 
profound  sadness  or  despair  found  in  the  songs,  but  many 
of  resilient  hopefulness  and  cheerful  endurance  of  present 
pain  in  contemplation  of  the  rewards  of  rest  and  happiness 
hereafter.  The  two  emotional  poles  in  question  are  touched 
in  the  settings  of  the  song  "Nobody  Knows." 

Colonel  Higginson  seems  to  have  sounded  the  keynote  of 
the  emotional  stimulus  of  the  songs  when  he  spoke  of  their 
infinite  pathos  as  a  commentary  on  the  livesof  theircreators : 
"Nothing  but  patience  for  this  life — nothing  but  triumph  in 
the  next."  This  feeling  was  encouraged  by  the  attitude, 
legal  and  personal,  of  the  slave  owners  toward  their  human 
chattels.  To  let  them  acquire  an  education  was  dangerous, 
for,  as  a  rule,  insurrections  were  fomented  by  educated  men; 
but  to  encourage  them  in  their  rude,  emotional  religious 
worship  was  not  harmful  and  might  be  positively  beneficial. 
Under  such  circumstances  it  was  natural  that  the  poetical 
expressions  of  their  temporal  state  should  run  out  in 
religious  allegory,  and  here  the  utterance  had  to  be  pre- 
dominantly cheerful  in  the  very  nature  of  the  case.  They 
could  not  sing  of  the  New  Jerusalem,  toward  which  they 
were  journeying,  in  tones  of  grief.  The  Biblical  tales  and 
imagery,  which  were  all  of  the  book  which  seized  upon  their 
imagination,  also  called  for  celebration  in  jubilant  rather 
than  lugubrious  accents.  The  rolling  of  Jordan's  waters,  the 
sound  of  the  last  trump,  the  overwhelming  of  Pharaoh's 
hosts,  the  vision  of  Jacob's  ladder,  the  building  of  the  Ark, 
Daniel  in  the  den  of  lions,  Ezekiel's  "wheel  in  the  middle  of 
a  wheel,"  Elijah's  chariot  of  fire,  the  breaking  up  of  the  uni- 
verse— all  these  things  and  the  lurid  pictures  of  the  Apoca- 
lypse, whether  hymned  with  allegorical  intent  or  as  literal  con- 
ceptions, asked  forswelllngproclamation.  And  all  received  it. 

f     45     1 


AFRO-AMERICAN   FOLKSONGS 

It  is  possible,  of  course,  even  likely,  though  the  records 
are  not  convincing,  that  restrictions  were  placed  upon  the 
songs  of  the  slaves,  in  which  an  explanation  may  be  found 
for  the  general  tone  of  cheer,  not  unmixed  with  pathos, 
which  characterizes  the  music.  There  is  a  hint  of  this  in 
a  remark  recorded  by  Mrs.  Frances  Anne  Kemble  in  her 
"Journal  of  a  Residence  on  a  Georgian  Plantation,"  name- 
ly: "I  have  heard  that  many  of  the  masters  and  overseers 
on  these  plantations  prohibit  melancholy  tunes  or  words 
and  encourage  nothing  but  cheerful  music  and  senseless 
words,  deprecating  the  effect  of  sadder  strains  upon  the 
slaves,  whose  peculiar  musical  sensibility  might  be  ex- 
pected to  make  them  especially  excitable  by  any  songs 
of  a  plaintive  character  and  having  reference  to  their 
particular  hardships."  Examples  of  such  restrictive  regu- 
lations are  not  unknown  to  history.  The  Swiss  soldiery 
in  the  French  army  were  prohibited  from  singing  the 
melody  of  the  "Ranz  des  Vaches"  because  it  produced 
homesickness,  and  the  Austrian  government  has  several 
times  forbidden  the  sale  of  the  Rakoczy  March  and  con- 
fiscated the  music  found  in  the  shops  in  times  of  political 
disturbance  in  Hungary. 

Had  the  folksongs  of  the  American  negro  been  conceived 
in  sorrow  and  born  in  heaviness  of  heart  by  a  people 
walking  in  darkness,  they  could  not  have  been  used  indis- 
criminately, as  they  were,  for  spiritual  comfort  and  physical 
stimulation.  It  is  the  testimony  of  the  earliest  collectors 
that  they  were  so  used.  Though  it  cannot  be  said  that  the 
employment  of  music  to  lighten  and  quicken  work  and  in- 
crease its  efficiency  was  peculiar  to  the  slave  life  of  America, 
it  is  nevertheless  worth  noting  that  this  use,  like  some  of 
the  idioms  of  the  music  itself,  was  a  relic  of  the  life  of  the 
negroes  in  their  aboriginal  home.  James  Augustus  Grant, 
in  his  book  "A  Walk  Across  Africa,"  as  cited  by  Wallaschek, 
says  that  his  people  when  cleaning  rice  were  always  sup- 
ported by  singers,  who  accompanied  the  workers  with 
clapping  of  hands  and  stamping  of  feet.  George  Francis 
Lyon,  in  his  "Narrative  of  Travels  in  Northern  Africa," 
says  that  at  one  place  he  heard  the  negro  women  singing 

[     46    1 


MODAL  CHARACTERISTICS   OF  THE  SONGS 

a  national  song  in  chorus  while  pounding  wheat,  always  in 
time  with  the  music.  "Mr.  Reade  observed,"  says  Walla- 
schek,  citing  W.  Winwood  Reade's  "The  African  Sketch 
Book,"^  "that  his  people  always  began  to  sing  when  he 
compelled  them  to  overcome  their  natural  laziness  and  to 
continue  rowing."  Here  the  song,  of  course,  had  for  its 
purpose  the  promotion  of  synchronism  in  movement, 
like  the  rhythm  of  the  march  all  the  world  over. 

It  is  immaterial  whether  the  use  of  song  as  a  stimulant 
to  work  was  brought  from  Africa  or  was  acquired  in 
America;  the  significant  fact  is  that  wherever  negro 
slavery  existed  on  this  continent  there  it  was  found.  In 
his  peculiarly  fascinating  book  "Two  Years  in  the  French 
West  Indies,"  Lafcadio  Hearn  says:  "Formerly  the  work 
of  cane-cutting  resembled  the  march  of  an  army — first 
advanced  the  cutlassers  in  line,  naked  to  the  waist;  then 
the  amareuses,  the  women  who  tied  and  carried,  and  be- 
hind these  the  ka,  the  drum,  with  a  paid  crieur  or  crieuse, 
to  lead  the  song,  and  lastly  the  black  commandeur  for 
general."  In  his  preface  to  Coleridge-Taylor's  "Twenty- 
four  Negro  Melodies"  Booker  T.  Washington  says: 
"Wherever  companies  of  negroes  were  working  together, 
in  the  cotton  fields  and  tobacco  factories,  on  the  levees  and 
steamboats,  on  sugar  plantations,  and  chiefly  in  the  fervor 
of  religious  gatherings,  these  melodies  sprang  into  life. 
Oftentimes  in  slavery,  as  to-day  in  certain  parts  of  the 
South,  some  man  or  woman  with  an  exceptional  voice  was 
paid  to  lead  the  singing,  the  idea  being  to  increase  the 
amount  of  labor  by  such  singing."  And  thus  speaks  the 
writer  of  the  article  entitled  "American  Music"  in  "The 
American  History  and  Encyclopaedia  of  Music,"  published 
by  Irving  Squire:  "Work  on  the  plantations  was  often 
done  to  the  accompaniment  of  songs,  whose  rhythmic 
swing  acted  as  an  incentive  to  steadier  and  better  labor; 
especially  was  this  true  with  the  mowers  at  harvest. 
Charles  Peabody  tells  of  a  leader  in  a  band  of  slaves  who 
was  besought  by  his  companions  not  to  sing  a  certain 
song  because  it  made  them  work  too  hard.    Again,  on  the 

»Vol.  II,  page  313. 

[     47     1 


AFRO-AMERICAN   FOLKSONGS 

boats  plying  between  the  West  Indies  and  Baltimore  and 
the  Southern  ports,  which  were  manned  by  the  blacks, 
song  was  used  for  the  same  purpose.  Later,  on  the  South- 
ern river  boats,  the  same  method  was  utilized.  These 
boat-songs  usually  were  constructed  of  a  single  line  followed 
by  an  unmeaning  chorus,  the  solo  being  sung  by  one  of 
the  leaders  and  the  rhythmic  refrain  repeated  over  and 
over  by  the  workers." 

There  is  nothing  especially  characteristic  of  slave  life 
in  such  "water  music"  except  its  idiom.  The  sailorman's 
"chanty,"  I  fancy,  is  universal  in  one  form  or  another. 
The  singular  fact  to  be  noted  here  is  that  the  American 
negro's  "spirituals"  were  also  his  working  songs,  and  the 
significance  which  this  circumstance  has  with  relation 
to  their  mood  and  mode.  The  spirituals  could  not  have 
been  thus  employed  had  they  been  lugubrious  in  tone  or 
sluggish  in  movement.  The  paucity  of  secular  working 
songs  has  already  been  commented  on.  Of  songs  referring 
to  labor  in  the  field  the  editors  of  "Slave  Songs  of  the 
United  States"  were  able  to  collect  only  two  examples. 
Both  of  them  are  "corn  songs,"  and  the  first  is  a  mere 
fragment,  the  only  words  of  which  have  been  preserved 
being  "Shock  along,  John."  The  second  defied  interpre- 
tation fifty  years  ago  and  is  still  incomprehensible: 

Five  can't  ketch  me  and  ten  can't  hold  me — 

Ho,  round  the  corn,  Sally! 
Here's  your  iggle-quarter  and  here's  your  count-aquils — 

Ho,  round  the  corn,  Sally! 
I  can  bank,  *ginny  bank,  'ginny  bank  the  weaver — 

Ho,  round  the  corn,  Sally! 

"The  same  songs  are  used  for  rowing  as  for  shouting," 
says  Mr.  Allen,  and  adds:  "I  know  of  only  one  pure  boat 
song,  the  fine  lyric,  ^Michael,  row  the  boat  ashore';  and 
this  I  have  no  doubt  is  a  real  spiritual — it  being  the  Arch- 
angel Michael  that  is  addressed." 

My  analytical  table  shows  that  three-fifths  of  the  songs 
which  I  have  examined  contain  the  peculiarly  propulsive 
rhythmical  snap,  or  catch,  which  has  several  times  been 
described  as  the  basis  of  "ragtime." 

It  is  this  rhythm  which  helps  admirably  to  make  a 
physical  stimulus  of  the  tunes,  and  it  is  noteworthy  that 

[     48     1 


MODAL  CHARACTERISTICS  OF  THE  SONGS 

it  is  equally  effective  in  slow  and  fast  time.  Essentially, 
therefore,  it  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  secular  dance, 
though  it  plays  a  large  part  in  the  "shout."  Mr.  Ware 
mentions  twelve  songs  as  among  the  most  common  rowing 
tunes,  and  says  of  them:  "As  I  have  written  these  tunes 
two  measures  are  to  be  sung  to  each  stroke,  the  first 
measure  being  accented  by  the  beginning  of  the  stroke, 
the  second  by  the  rattle  of  the  oars  in  the  rowlocks.  On 
the  passenger  boat  at  the  (Beaufort)  ferry  they  rowed 
from  sixteen  to  thirty  strokes  a  minute;  twenty-four  was 
the  average.  Of  the  tunes  I  heard  I  should  say  that  the 
most  lively  were  *Heaven  bell  a-ring,'  'Jine  'em,'  *Rain 
fall,'  *No  man,'  'Bell  da  ring'  and  'Can't  stay  behin'  ';  and 
that  'Lay  this  body  down,'  'Religion  so  sweet'  and  'Michael, 
row,'  were  used  when  the  load  was  heavy  or  the  tide  was 
against  us." 

A  few  additonal  comments  seem  to  be  justified  by 
these  songs.  Of  the  twelve,  only  three  contain  references 
to  a  water  passage  of  any  sort.  In  "Praise  member"^ 
two  lines  run: 

Jordan's  bank  is  a  good  old  bank, 

And  I  hain't  but  one  more  river  to  cross. 

In  "Michael,  row  the  boat  ashore"  the  archangel's  boat 
is  darkly  described  as  a  "gospel  boat"  and  also  as  a  "music 
boat,"  but  there  is  no  connection  betwen  these  epithets 
and  the  rest  of  the  song.  "Praise  member"  presented  a 
riddle  to  the  editors,  which  they  might  have  solved  had  they 
reflected  on  the  effect  which  its  use  as  a  rowing  song  may 
have  had  upon  its  text. 

Mr.  Ware  gives  the  last  verse  as  "O  I  wheel  to  de  right 
and  I  wheel  to  de  left";  Colonel  Higginson  contributes  a 
variant  reading,  "There's  a  hill  on  my  leff,  an'  he  catch 
on  my  right"  and  adds  the  only  and  unsatisfactory  explana- 
tion given  to  him:  "Dat  mean  if  you  go  on  de  leff  you  go 
to  'struction,  and  if  you  go  on  de  right  go  to  God  for  sure." 
Miss  Charlotte  L.  Forten  has  another  version,  *'I  hop  on 
my  right  an'  I  catch  on  my  leff,"  and  makes  the  shrewd 
observation  that  she  supposes  that  "some  peculiar  motion 

» No.  5  of  "Slave  Songs." 

[     49     1 


AFRO-AMERICAN   FOLKSONGS 

of  the  body  formed  the  original  accompaniment  of  the 
song,  but  has  now  fallen  into  disuse."  If  the  rowing  singer 
meant  "hold"  or  "stop"  or  "back"  on  my  right  and  catch 
on  my  left,  even  a  novice  at  the  oars  would  have  understood 
the  motion  as  a  familiar  one  in  steering. 

This  is  interesting,  I  think,  though  outside  of  the  parti- 
cular line  of  argument  for  which  I  introduced  the  working 
songs  of  the  slaves — namely,  to  explain  their  general  cheer- 
fulness. Just  as  interesting  is  a  singular  custom  which  Mr. 
Reuben  Tomlinson  mentions  in  connection  with  the  enig- 
matic song  beginning  "Rain  fall  and  wet  Becca  Lawton," 
which  has  a  refrain,  "Been  back  holy,  I  must  come  slowly, 
Oh!  Brudder,  cry  holy!"  In  place  of  "Been  back"  there 
are  as  variants  "Beat  back,"  "Bent  back"  and  "Rack 
back."  When  the  song  is  used  for  rowing,  Mr.  Tomlinson 
says,  "at  the  words  'Rack  back  holy'  one  rower  reaches 
back  and  slaps  the  man  behind  him,  who  in  turn  does  the 
same  and  so  on."  It  is  not  impossible,  or  even  improbable, 
that  this  form  of  the  game  which  was  played  in  my  boy- 
hood, called  **Pass  it  along,"  was  an  African  survival. 

It  may  be,  too,  that  there  is  another  relic,  an  African 
superstition,  in  the  song.  Colonel  Higginson  heard  it  as 
"Rain  fall  and  wet  Becky  Martin";  a  variant  of  the  first 
line  of  the  song  as  printed  in  "Slave  Songs"  is  "Sun  shine 
and  dry  Becca  Lawton."  Colonel  Higginson  comments: 
"Who  Becky  Martin  was,  and  why  she  should  or  should 
not  be  wet,  and  whether  the  dryness  was  a  reward  or  a 
penalty,  none  could  say.  I  got  the  impression  that  in 
either  case  the  event  was  posthumous,  and  that  there  was 
some  tradition  of  grass  not  growing  over  the  grave  of  the 
sinner;  but  even  this  was  vague,  and  all  else  vaguer." 
In  their  note  on  the  song  the  editors  of  "Slave  Songs"  say: 
"Lieutenant-Colonel  Trowbridge  heard  a  story  that  Peggy 
Norton  was  an  old  prophetess  who  said  that  it  would  not 
do  to  be  baptized  except  when  it  rained;  if  the  Lord  was 
pleased  with  those  who  had  been  *in  the  wilderness',  he 
would  send  rain."  To  go  into  the  wilderness  was  to  seek 
conversion  from  sin,  to  go  to.  "the  mourners'  bench,"  as 
our  Methodist  brethren  say.    Mr.  Tomlinson  said  that  the 

[     50     1 


MODAL  CHARACTERISTICS  OF  THE  SONGS 

song  always  ended  with  a  laugh,  and  he  concluded  from 
this  that  the  negroes  themselves  regarded  it  as  mere  non- 
sense. 

Not  much  else  are  the  words  of  two  Mississippi  River 
songs,  which  are  printed  herewith,  the  music  of  which, 
however,  has  elements  of  unique  interest.  "Oh,  Rock  Me, 
Julie,"  (see  p.  52)  and  "I'm  Gwine  to  Alabamy"  (see  p.  53), 
are  singularly  alike  in  structure,  with  their  exclamatory 
cadenza.  They  are  also  alike  in  bearing  a  resemblance 
to  the  stereotyped  formula  of  the  music  of  the  North 
American  Indians,  with  its  high  beginning  and  the  repeti- 
tion of  a  melodic  motif  on  low^er  degrees  of  the  scale.  But 
"Rock  Me,  Julie,"  is  unique  in  being  built  on  the  whole- 
tone  scale,  which  has  caused  so  much  comment  since  De- 
bussy exploited  it  in  artistic  music. 

There  is  nothing  in  either  words  or  music  necessarily 
to  connect  a  "Cajan"  boat-song  in  my  manuscript  collection 
(see  page  54)  with  the  folksongs  of  the  negroes,  but  the 
song  is  intrinsically  interesting  as  a  relic  of  the  Acadian 
period  in  Louisiana.  It  was  written  down  for  me  from 
memory  a  generation  ago  by  Mrs.  Wulsin,  mother  of  the 
late  Lucien  Wulsin,  of  Cincinnati,  a  descendant,  I  believe, 
of  one  of  the  old  couriers  des  hois.  It  is  a  canoe,  or  paddling, 
song,  and  there  is  no  trace  of  the  Creole  patois  in  its  text. 

Les  marenquins  nous  piquent — 

II  faut  pagayer; 
L'on  ne  passe  sa  vie 

Toujours  en  pagayant. 
Pagaie,  pagaie,  pagaie,  mon  enfant. 

(The  mosquitoes  sting  us;  we  must  paddle.  One's  life  is  not  all  passed  in 
paddling.    Paddle,  paddle,  paddle,  my  boy.) 

The  lines  in  the  second  verse  as  they  remained  in 
Mrs.  Wulsin's  memory  do  not  adjust  themselves  to  the 
melody,  but  they,  no  doubt,  preserve  the  sense  of  the  old 
song: 

Toute  la  semaine 
L'on  mange  de  la  sacamite, 
Et  le  Dimanche  pour  se  regaler 
L'on  mange  du  gombo  file. 
Pagaie,    etc. 

(All  the  week  we  eat  sacamite^  and  on  Sundays,  for  good  cheer,  we  eat  gombo 
file.    Paddle,  etc.) 

\    51    1 


AFRO-AMERICAN   FOLKSONGS 


Oh!  Rock  Me  JtiHe 

Chorus 


Oh!        rock  me,  Ju  •  lie,  rock  me,    Oh! . 

<P     fir  ^f 


^ Gs. 


Words  and  melody  received  by  the  autlior  from  Mr.  George  W.  Cable.  The  arrangement  made 
for  this  work  by  H.T.  Burleigh.  The  melody  is  based  on  the  "whole -tone"  scale. 


[    52    ] 


MODAL  CHARACTERISTICS  OF  THE  SONGS 


Tin  Gwine  to  Alabamy 


Moderato 


Z.  She  went  from  ole  Virg-inay, 
And  tin  her  pickaninny. 

9.. She  lires  on  the  Tombigrbee, 
I  wi^  I  had  her  wid  me. 


4.  Now  I'm  a  g-ood  big-  nigyer, 
I  reckon  I  won't  git  bigg-er. 

6.  But  Td  like  to  see  my  mammy, 
Who  liTes  in  Alabamy. 


"A  Tery  good  specimen,  so  far  as  notes  can  give  one7  ^ays  the  editor  of'^Slare  Songs  of  the 
XJaited  States",  "of  tbestrange  barbaric  soags  that  one  bears  npon  the  Western  Steamboats? 
Thft  arrangement  made  for  this  work  bj  H.T.  Burleigh. 


[      S3      ] 


I 


AFRO-AMERICAN   FOLKSONGS 


Acadian  Boatmerfs  Song 


Con  moto 


Les  ma  -  ren-  quins  nous       pi  -  qnent,   II  faut        pa  •  ga 


r  1  -  i 

yer,        L'on 

ne  pas-se     sa       yi    .     e    tou .  jours    en    pa-ga-yant. 

<6m  s  It 

*  J  ,   J        '    ~' 

=5=i=¥=#= 

J   g   rj 

H — 'HI 

k   1   i      1 

1       3 

J       J 

1  -»    1 

^tF\. 

\r--r— 

— « — k — , — 

^        ^      N 

1    K     h     K      N=^ 

Pa  •  gai  -    e,     pa  .  gal  -    e,     pa  -   gai  -  e,    mon     en   . 

1  J     ^ 

rant. 

W^ 

'-i^ 

-; f=l— 

^ A-t~ 

-J J 

-:4: ^ 

-y^— 

i   i  i 

-* 9 — 9 — 

#£_/     Lj' 

* 

— ■ 0 — p — 

m  .n 

—t ' 

1 — 1 

'■^   Lf  ' 

4 — r ' 

'  r     ^ 

Written  down  as  a  recollection  of  htr  childhood  in  New  Orleans  by  Mrs-Witlsia,  mollier  of  the 
late  Lticien  Wolsin  of  Cincinnati,  for  the  aathor.  The  arrangement  made  fte  this  p^Ucation  by 
H.T-Bnrleigh. 


t    S4    1 


MODAL  CHARACTERISTICS   OF  THE  SONGS 

"Sacamite,"  Lafcadio  Hearn  wrote  in  my  notebook, 
"is  a  favorite  Creole  (and,  of  course,  Acadian)  dish  made 
of  corn  broken  and  boiled  with  milk  into  a  sort  of  thick 
soup.    I  do  not  know  the  etymology  of  this  word." 


r  55  1 


CHAPTER  V 

MUSIC   AMONG   THE  AFRICANS 


The  Many  and  Varied   Kinds   of  African  Slaves- 

NoT  All  Negroes — Their  Aptitude  and  Love  for 

Music — Knowledge  and    Use  of  Harmony — 

Dahomans     at     Chicago — Rhythm     and 

Drumming — African  Instruments 


So  much  for  modes  and  moods.  The  analytical  table 
in  the  last  chapter  showed  several  variations  of  both  the 
major  and  minor  scales,  and  these  variations  must  be 
examined,  for  upon  them,  together  with  rhythmical  and 
structural  characteristics,  rest  the  idioms  which  have  been 
referred  to  as  determining  the  right  of  the  songs  of  the 
American  negroes  to  be  called  original.  These  idioms  are 
the  crude  material  which  the  slaves  brought  with  them  from 
their  African  homes.  This,  at  least,  is  the  conviction  of 
this  writer,  and  the  contention  which  he  hopes  to  establish 
by  a  study  of  the  intervallic  and  rhythmical  peculiarities 
of  the  songs  and  by  tracing  them  to  their  primitive  habitat. 
Before  then,  for  the  sake  of  orderly  argument,  it  may  be 
well  briefly  to  inquire  into  the  musical  aptitude  of  the 
Africans  who  created  the  idioms.  Unfortunately,  the 
inquiry  cannot  be  made  as  particular  as  might  be  desirable, 
for  want  of  specific  evidence. 

The  slaves  in  the  Southern  States  were  an  amalgamation 
of  peoples  when  the  songs  came  into  existence.  Though 
they  are  spoken  of  as  negroes,  there  were  many  among  them 
who  were  not  racially  nigritians.  The  Slave  Coast,  from 
which  the  majority  of  them  were  brought  to  America, 
was  the  home  of  only  a  fraction  of  them.  Many  came  from 
the  interior  of  the  continent.  There  were  some  Malays 
from  Madagascar,  some  Moors  from  the  northern  portion 
of  the  continent.  Among  the  negroes  of  Africa  the  diver- 
sities of  tribe  are  so  great  that  over  a  score  of  difi"erent 
languages  are  spoken  by  them,  to  say  nothing  of  dialects. 

[    56    ] 


MUSIC  AMONG  THE  AFRICANS 

All  was  fish  that  came  to  the  slaver's  net.  Among  the 
Moors  brought  to  America  were  men  who  professed  the 
Mahometan  religion  and  read  and  wrote  Arabic.  It  is 
not  impossible  that  to  their  influence  in  this  country,  or 
at  any  rate  to  Moorish  influence  upon  the  tribes  which 
furnished  the  larger  quota  of  American  slaves,  is  due  one 
of  the  aberrations  from  the  diatonic  scale  which  is  indi- 
cated in  the  table — the  presence  of  the  characteristically 
Oriental  interval  called  the  augmented  or  superfluous 
second.  Among  the  peoples  who  crowded  the  plantations 
were  Meens,  who  were  of  the  hue  of  the  so-called  red  men 
of  America —  i.  e.,  copper-colored.  There  were  also  Iboes, 
who  had  tattooed  yellow  skins.  It  does  not  seem  to  be 
possible  now  to  recall  all  the  names  of  the  tributary  tribes — 
Congos,  Agwas,  Popos,  Cotolies,  Feedas,  Socos,  Awassas, 
Aridas,  Fonds,  Nagos; — who  knows  now  how  they  differed 
one  from  another,  what  were  their  peculiarities  of  language 
and  music  which  may  have  affected  the  song  which  they 
helped  to  create  in  their  second  home?  We  must,  per- 
force, generalize  when  discussing  the  native  capacity  for 
music  of  the  Africans. 

Sir  Richard  Francis  Burton,  in  his  book  on  West  Africa, 
says  of  the  music  of  the  Kroomen  that  "it  is  monotonous 
to  a  degree,  yet  they  delight  in  it,  and  often  after  a  long 
and  fatiguing  day's  march  will  ask  permission  to  *make 
play'  and  dance  and  sing  till  midnight.  When  hoeing  the 
ground  they  do  it  to  the  sound  of  music;  in  fact,  every- 
thing is  cheered  with  a  song.  The  traveller  should  never 
forget  to  carry  a  tom-tom  or  some  similar  instrument,  which 
will  shorten  his  journey  by  a  fair  quarter."  In  his  "Lake 
Region  of  Central  Africa"  (page  291)  Burton  describes 
the  natives  of  East  Africa  as  "admirable  timists  and  no 
mean  tunists."  Wallaschek  (page  140),  citing  Moodie,^  says: 
"Another  still  more  striking  example  of  the  Hottentots' 
musical  talent  was  related  to  Moodie  by  a  German  officer. 
When  the  latter  happened  to  play  that  beautifully  pathetic 
air  of  Gluck's,  'Che  faro  senza  Euridice,'  on  his  violin,  he 
was  surprised  to  observe  that  he  was  listened  to  by  some 

»"Ten  Years  in  South  Africa,"  by  John  W.  D.  Moodie,  page  228. 

[     57    ] 


AFRO-AMERICAN   FOLKSONGS 

Hottentot  women  with  the  deepest  attention,  and  that  some 
of  them  were  even  affected  to  tears.  In  a  day  or  two  after- 
ward he  heard  his  favorite  melody,  with  accompaniments, 
all  over  the  country  wherever  his  wandering  led  him.  At 
first  it  seems  astonishing  that  there  should  be  Hottentots 
apparently  endowed  with  so  great  a  musical  gift;  it  is  es- 
pecially surprising  to  hear  of  their  repeating  the  air  with 
accompaniments,  since  the  German  officer  was  certainly 
not  able  to  play  both  on  his  violin  at  the  same  time." 
Wallaschek  then  continues:  "This  statement,  however, 
will  no  longer  appear  to  us  incredible  if  compared  with 
similar  examples  in  the  accounts  of  some  other  travellers. 
Theophilus  Hahn,  who  lived  in  Africa  for  fifteen  years, 
tells  us  that  his  father,  the  missionary,  used  to  play  some 
hymns  before  the  tribe  of  the  Nama  Hottentots  to  the  ac- 
companiment of  a  concertina.  Some  days  afterward  they 
would  repeat  the  hymns  with  the  Dutch  words,  which  they 
could  not  understand.  Hahn  says:  ''They  drawl  the  grave 
songs  of  the  hymns,  such  as  'O  Haupt  voll  Blut  und 
Wunden,'  'Ein  Lammlein  geht  und  tragt  die  Schuld,' 
with  the  same  ardor  as  'O  du  mein  lieber  Augustin,'* 
*My  Heart's  in  the  Highlands'  or  'Long,  Long  Ago.' " 

This  imitative  capacity  of  the  negroes  frequently  spoken 
of  by  travellers  is  amusingly  described  by  Albert  Frieden- 
thal  in  his  book,  "Musik,  Tanz  und  Dichtung  bei  den 
Kreolen  Amerikas."  One  day  in  October,  1898,  he  was 
engaged  in  writing  while  sitting  on  his  veranda  at  Louren^o 
Marques,  on  the  east  coast  of  Africa.  Myriads  of  grass- 
hoppers were  devasting  the  country,  and  every  negro 
far  and  near  was  pounding  on  something  to  drive  the  pests 
away.  The  noise  became  unendurable,  and  Friedenthal 
grabbed  a  tin  plate  and  spoon  from  the  hands  of  the  first 
negro  he  reached  and  cried:  "If  you  must  make  a  noise, 
do  it  at  least  in  this  way!" — and  he  drummed  out  the 
rhythmical  motive  of  the  Nibelungs  from  Wagner's  te- 
tralogy. He  repeated  the  figure  two  or  three  times.  "Al- 
ready the  negroes  in  my  garden  imitated  it;  then,  amused 
by  it,  those  in  the  neighborhood  took  it  up,  and  soon  one 

'  The  old  German  LdndUr,  "O  du  lieber  Augustm,"  is  meant. 

[     58    1 


MUSIC  AMONG  THE  AFRICANS 

could  hear  the  Nibelung  rhythm   by   the   hour  all   over 
Delagoa  Bay." 

This  author  makes  several  allusions  to  the  innate  fond- 
ness of  the  negro  for  music  and  the  influence  which  he  has 
exerted  upon  the  art  of  the  descendants  of  the  Spaniards 
in  North  and  South  America.    On  page  38  he  writes: 

But  there  is  another  race  which  has  left  its  traces  wherever  it  has  gone — 
the  African  negroes.  As  has  already  been  remarked,  they  have  a  share  in  the 
creation  of  one  of  the  most  extended  forms,  the  Habanera.  Their  influence 
has  been  strongest  wherever  they  have  been  most  numerously  represented — 
in  the  Antilles,  on  the  shores  of  the  Caribbean  Sea  and  in  Brazil.  In  places 
where  the  negro  has  never  been — in  the  interior  of  Mexico,  in  Argentina, 
in  Chili  and  the  Cordilleran  highlands — nothing  of  their  influence  is  to  be 
observed,  except  that  in  these  countries  the  beautiful  dance  of  the  Habanera 
and  numerous  songs  with  the  Habanera  rhythm  have  effected  an  entrance. 

On  page  93 : 

From  a  musical  point  of  view,  the  influence  of  the  African  on  the  West 
Indian  Creole  has  been  of  the  greatest  significance,  for  through  their  coopera- 
tion there  arose  a  dance-form — the  Habanera — which  spread  itself  through 
Romanic  America.  The  essential  thing  in  pure  negro  music,  as  is  known,  is 
to  be  sought  in  rhythm.  The  melodic  phrases  of  the  negroes  consist  of  endless 
repetitions  of  short  series  of  notes,  so  that  we  can  scarcely  speak  of  them  as 
melodies  in  our  sense  of  the  word.  On  the  other  hand,  no  European  shall 
escape  the  impression  which  these  rhythms  make.  They  literally  bore  them- 
selves into  the  consciousness  of  the  listener,  irresistible  and  penetrating  to 
the  verge  of  torture. 

On  the  same  page  again: 

Whoever  knows  the  enthusiastic  love,  I  might  almost  say  the  fanati- 
cism, of  the  negro  for  music  can  easily  imagine  the  impression  which  the  music 
of  the  Spaniards,  especially  that  of  the  Creoles,  made  upon  them.  It  can 
easily  be  proved  how  much  they  profited  by  the  music  of  the  Europeans,  how 
gradually  the  sense  of  melody  was  richly  developed  in  them,  and  how  they 
acquired  and  made  their  own  the  whole  nature  of  this  art  without  surrendering 
their  peculiarity  of  rhythm.  This  Europeanized  negro  music  developed 
to  its  greatest  florescence  in  the  south  of  the  United  States. 

Friedenthal  mentions  a  number  of  musicians  who  at- 
tained celebrity,  all  of  them  of  either  pure  or  mixed  African 
descent.  They  are  Jose  White,  Brindis  de  Salas,  Albertini, 
Gigueiroa  and  Adelelmo,  violinists;  Jimenez,  pianist,  and 
Coleridge-Taylor,  composer.  Of  Adelelmo  he  says  that 
though  he  was  never  heard  outside  of  Brazil  he  was  "an 
eminent  virtuoso  and  refined  composer;  and,  to  judge  by 
his  surname  (do  Nascimento),  probably  the  son  of  a  former 
slave." 

Wallaschek  formulates  his  conclusion  touching  African 
music,  after  considering  the  testimony  of  travellers,  as 
follows : 

f     59    1 


AFRO-AMERICAN   FOLKSONGS 

The  general  character  of  African  music,  then,  is  the  preference  for  rhythm 
over  melody  (when  this  is  not  the  sole  consideration);  the  union  of  song  and 
dance;  the  simplicity,  not  to  say  humbleness,  of  the  subjects  chosen;  the 
great  imitative  talent  in  connection  with  the  music  and  the  physical  excite- 
ment from  which  it  arises  and  to  which  it  appears  appropriate. 

In  this  characterization  he  might  have  included  at  least 
a  rudimentary  knowledge  of,  or  feeling  for,  harmony.  There 
is  evidence  of  a  harmonic  sense  in  the  American  songs 
themselves,  though  the  testimony  of  the  original  collectors 
does  not  make  it  clear  that  the  slaves  sang  the  character- 
istic refrains  of  their  songs  in  parts.  On  this  point  some- 
thing will  have  to  be  said  presently;  but  the  evidence  of 
African  harmony  is  summarized  by  Wallaschek  himself 
in  these  words: 

Kolbe  at  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century  heard  Hottentots  playing 
their  gom-goms  in  harmony.  "They  also  sang  the  notes  of  the  common 
chord  down  to  the  lower  octave,  each  one  beginning  with  the  phrase  whenever 
the  former  one  had  already  come  to  the  second  or  third  tone,  thus  producing  a 
harmonious  effect."*  Burchell  describes  the  harmonious  singing  of  the  Bachapin 
boys:  Sometimes  one  of  them  led  the  band  and  the  rest  joined  in  at  different 
intervals  and,  guided  only  by  the  ear,  attuned  their  voices  in  correct  harmony. 
The  elder  boys,  whose  voices  were  of  a  lower  pitch,  sang  the  bass,  while  the 
younger  produced  in  their  turn  the  higher  tones  of  the  treble,^  The  Bechuanas 
also  sing  in  harmony.  The  melody  of  their  songs  is  simple  enough,  consisting 
chiefly  of  ascending  and  descending  by  thirds,  while  the  singers  have  a  sufficient 
appreciation  of  harmony  to  sing  in  two  parts.'  Moodie  tells  us  that  he  very 
often  heard  the  Hottentot  servant  girls  singing  in  two  parts;  they  even  san;? 
European  tunes  which  were  quite  new  to  them  with  the  accompaniment  of 
a  second  of  their  own.*  The  same  is  said  by  Soyaux  of  the  negro  girls  of 
Sierra  Leone.^ 

Examples  of  harmony  in  the  music  of  the  Ashantees  and 
Fantees,  from  Bowditch's  "Mission  from  Cape  Coast  Castle 
to  Ashantee,"  may  be  seen  in  the  examples  of  African 
music  printed  in  this  chapter  (pp.  61-62).  That  the  Daho- 
mans,  who  are  near  neighbors  of  the  people  visited  by  Bow- 
ditch,  also  employ  harmony  I  can  testify  from  observations 
made  in  the  Dahoman  village  at  the  World's  Columbian 
Exhibition  held  in  Chicago  in  1893.  There  I  listened  re- 
peatedly during  several  days  to  the  singing  of  a  Dahoman 

*  Peter  Kolbe,  "Caput  Bonae  Spei  Hodiernum,"  Nuremburg,  1719;  page 
528. 

*  W.  T.  Burchell,  "Travels  in  the  Interior  of  Southern  Africa,"  London, 
1822-'24;  Vol.  II,  page  438. 

»  Ibid. 

*  Op.  cit.  II,  227. 

»  Hermann  Soyaux,  "Aus  West-Afrika,"  Leipsic,  1879;  II,  174. 

[    60    ] 


MUSIC  AMONG  THE  AFRICANS 


African  Music 

No.i.  Drum  Call  from  West  Africa 


No.  J8.  Tuning  of  a  Zanze  from  South  Africa 


No.  3.  Melody  from  the  Ba-Ronga  District 


No. 4.  A  Melody  of  the  Hottentots 


No.  5.  A  Melody  of  the  Kaffirs 


No.  6.  A  War-Dance  of  the  Dahomans 


^2d  Choms 


1st  Chorus 


Drams  tifffrrr^rrrrrr  'trrrrf^  rrr  rrr^ 


Allegro 


No.  7.  Ashantee  Air 
P. 


61 


AFRO-AMERICAN   FOLKSONGS 


Allegro 


No.  8.  FanteeAir 


3    3?*13.JJ1J   "   If    *    ij^JJIJ    "'^^Jtii    iJ 


No.  9.  A  Fantee  Dirge 


(Drams,  Gongs,  etc.) 


Specimens  of  African  Music  disclosing  Elements  Found  in  the 
Songs  of  the  Negro  Slaves  in  America. 

Ko.t.  A  drum  call  from  West  Africa,  utilized  by  Coleridge -Taylor  in  "Twenty,  four  Negro 
Melodies  transcribed  for  the  Piano"  (Boston,  Oliver  Ditson  Co.).  The  specimen  exhibits  the 
rhythmical  "snap"  or  "catch",  an  exaggerated  use  of  which  has  produced  "rag- time";  also  the 
fact  that  African  droms  are  sometimes  tuned—  No.  2.  The  tones  given  out  by  a  manst  of 
the  Zulus  in  the  posession  of  the  author;  shows  the  pentatonic  scale  with  two  notes  Strang* 
to  the  system  at  the  end.-  No.  3.  A  pentatonic  melody  from"Les  Chants  et  les  Contesdes  B^ 
Ronga'/  by  Henri  Junod,  utilized  by  Coleridge -Taylor,  who  remarked  of  it  that  it  was  "car. 
taittly  not  unworthy  of  any  composer-  from  Beethoven  downwards'.' -No.  4.  A  melody  of  the 
Hottentots,  quoted  by  Engel  in  his  "Introduction  to  the  Study  of  National  Music".  It  is  in 
the  major  mode  with  the  fourth  of  the  scale  omitted.  The  all-pervasive  "snap"  is  present,as 
It  is  in  -  No.  5.  A  Kaffir  melody,  also  quoted  by  Engel;  in  the  major  mode  (D)  w,ithout  the 
leading. tone.-  No.  6.  Music  of  a  dance  of  the  Dahomans  heard  at-ihe  Columbian  Exhibitioa 
in  Chicago  in  1893,  illustrating  the  employment  of  the  flat  seventh  and  cross-  rhythms  be. 
tween  singers  anxl  drummers.-  No. 7.  According  to  Bowdich ("Mission  from  Cape  Coast  Cas> 
tie  to  Ashantee','  London,  1819),  the  oldest  air  in  his  collection.  Bowdich  saysf'l  could  traca 
it  through  four  generations,  but  the  answer  made  to  my  enquiries  will  give  the  best  idea  of  its 
antiquity:  'It  was  made  when  the  country  Mas  made'."  It  was  played  on  the  sanko,  artde  gt^- 
tar.  It  demonstrates  the  use  of  thirds.-  No.8.  A  Fantee  air  from  BowdichV'Mission,  etc.",  show. 
ing  thirds,  fifths  and  the  "snap'.'-  No.  9.  A  Fantee  dirge  for  flutes  and  instruments  of  percns. 
sion.  Also  from  Bowdich,  who  says:  "In  venturing  the  intervening  and  concluding  bass-chijrtf* 
I  merely  attempt  to  describe  the  castanets,  gong.gongs,  drums,  etc.,  bursting  in  after  the 
soft  and  mellow  tones  of  the  flutes;  as  if  the  ear  was  not  to  retain  a  vibration  of  the  sweet 
er  melody!' 


62 


MUSIC  AMONG  THE  AFRICANS 


Round  about  the  Mountain 


Moderato 


Round  a^bout  the  mountain,       O      round  a-bout  the  val-leys,      O 
sempre  arpeggiando 


The     Lord  loves  the  sin-ner,         the     Lord  loves  the  sin-ner,       The 


Lord     lores    the     sin  -  ner,    and    she'll     rise       in     His    arms.      O 

(hell) 


A  ftueral  hymn  from  Boyle  Co.,  Eentacky,  taken  from  the  singing^  of  a  former  slave  by  Miss 
Mildred  J.  Hill,  for  the  author.  Arranged  by  Arthur  Mees.  Ifiss  Hill  remarked  on  it:  "Don't  let 
this  get  to  going  iayour  mind,  for  it  will  give  you  no  peace.  It  is  worse  than  the  'A  pink  trip 
«lip'  It  seems  quite  high,  but  is  the  pitch  in  which  it  was  sva^." 


63     1 


AFRO-AMERICAN   FOLKSONGS 

minstrel  who  was  certainly  the  gentlest  and  least  assertive 
person  in  the  village,  if  not  in  the  entire  fair.  All  day  long 
he  sat  beside  his  little  hut,  a  spear  thrust  in  the  ground  by 
his  side,  and  sang  little  descending  melodies  in  a  faint  high 
voice,  which  reminded  me  of  Dr.  George  Schweinfurth's 
description  in  his  "Heart  of  Africa"  of  the  minstrels  of 
the  Niam-Niam  who,  he  said,  are  "as  sparing  of  their 
voices  as  a  worn-out  prima  donna,"  and  whose  minstrelsy 
might  be  said  to  have  the  "character  of  a  lover's  whisper." 
To  his  gentle  singing  he  strummed  an  unvarying  accom- 
paniment upon  a  tiny  harp.  This  instrument,  primitive 
in  construction  (like  the  ancient  Egyptian  harps  it  lacked 
a  pole  to  resist  the  tension  of  the  strings),  was  yet  consider- 
ably developed  from  an  artistic  point  of  view.  It  was  about 
two  and  a  half  feet  high  and  had  eight  strings  accurately 
tuned  according  to  the  diatonic  major  system,  but  omitting 
the  fourth  tone.  With  his  right  hand  he  played  over  and 
over  again  a  descending  passage  of  dotted  crochets  and 
quavers  in  thirds;  with  his  left  hand  he  syncopated  in- 
geniously on  the  highest  two  strings. 

A  more  striking  demonstration  of  the  musical  capacity 
of  the  Dahomans  was  made  in  the  war-dances  which  they 
performed  several  times  every  forenoon  and  afternoon. 
These  dances  were  accompanied  by  choral  song  and  the 
rhythmical  and  harmonious  beating  of  drums  and  bells,  the 
song  being  in  unison.  The  harmony  was  a  tonic  major  triad 
broken  up  rhythmically  in  a  most  intricate  and  amazingly 
ingenious  manner.  The  instruments  were  tuned  with  excel- 
lent justness.  The  fundamental  tone  came  from  a  drum 
made  of  a  hollowed  log  about  three  feet  long  with  a  single 
head,  played  by  one  who  seemed  to  be  the  leader  of  the 
band,  though  there  was  no  giving  of  signals.  This  drum  was 
beaten  with  the  palms  of  the  hands.  A  variety  of  smaller 
drums,  some  with  one,  some  with  two  heads,  were  beaten 
variously  with  sticks  and  fingers.  The  bells,  four  in  number, 
were  of  iron  and  were  held  mouth  upward  and  struck  with 
sticks.  The  players  showed  the  most  remarkable  rhyth- 
mical sense  and  skill  that  ever  came  under  my  notice. 
Berlioz  in  his  supremest  effort  with  his  army  of  drummers 

f     64     1 


MUSIC  AMONG  THE  AFRICANS 

produced  nothing  to  compare  in  artistic  interest  with  the 
harmonious  drumming  of  these  savages.  The  fundamental 
effect  was  a  combination  of  double  and  triple  time,  the 
former  kept  by  the  singers,  the  latter  by  the  drummers,  but 
it  is  impossible  to  convey  the  idea  of  the  wealth  of  detail 
achieved  by  the  drummers  by  means  of  exchange  of  the 
rhythms,  syncopation  of  both  simultaneously,  and  dynamic 
devices.  Only  by  making  a  score  of  the  music  could  this 
have  been  done.  I  attempted  to  make  such  a  score  by  en- 
listing the  help  of  the  late  John  C.  Fillmore,  experienced 
in  Indian  music,  but  we  were  thwarted  by  the  players  who, 
evidently  divining  our  purpose  when  we  took  out  our 
notebooks,  mischievously  changed  their  manner  of  playing 
as  soon  as  we  touched  pencil  to  paper.  I  was  forced  to 
the  conclusion  that  in  their  command  of  the  element,  which 
in  the  musical  art  of  the  ancient  Greeks  stood  higher  than 
either  melody  or  harmony,  the  best  composers  of  to-day 
were  the  veriest  tyros  compared  with  these  black  savages. 

It  would  be  easy  to  fill  pages  with  travellers'  notes  on 
the  drum-playing  and  dancing  of  the  African  tribes  to 
illustrate  their  marvellous  command  of  rhythm.  I  content 
myself  with  a  few  illustrative  examples.  African  drums 
are  of  many  varieties,  from  the  enormous  war  drums,  for 
which  trunks  of  large  trees  provide  the  body  and  wild 
beasts  the  membranes  which  are  belabored  with  clubs, 
down  to  the  small  vase-shaped  instruments  played  with 
the  fingers.  The  Ashantees  used  their  large  drums  to  make 
an  horrific  din  to  accompany  human  sacrifices,  and  large 
drums,  too,  are  used  for  signalling  at  great  distances. 
The  most  refined  effects  of  the  modern  tympanist  seem 
to  be  put  in  the  shade  by  the  devices  used  by  African 
drummers  in  varying  the  sound  of  their  instruments  so 
as  to  make  them  convey  meanings,  not  by  conventional 
time-formulas  but  by  actual  imitation  of  words.  Walla- 
schek^  says: 

^'Peculiar  to  Africa  is  the  custom  of  using  drums  as  a 
means  of  communication  from  great  distances.  There 
are  two  distinctly  different  kinds  of  this  drum  language, 

iPage  112. 

[    65     ] 


AFRO-AMERICAN   FOLKSONGS 

as  is  shown  in  an  example  by  Mr.  Schauenburg.  ^  He  saw 
at  Kujar  a  negro  beating  the  drum  with  the  right  hand 
and  varying  the  tone  by  pressing  his  left  on  the  skin,  so 
as  to  imitate  the  sound  of  the  Mandingo  words.  During 
the  wrestling  match  it  sounded  *Amuta,  amuta'  (attack); 
during  the  dance  *ali  bae  si,'  and  all  the  participants 
understood  it.^  .  .  .  .  Sir  A.  C.  Moloney  observed 
this  system  of  language  among  the  Yorubas.  .  .  and 
says  it  is  an  imitation  of  the  human  voice  by  the  drum. 
To  understand  it  one  has  to  know  'the  accents  of  pro- 
nunciation in  the  vernacular  and  to  become  capable  of 
recognizing  the  different  and  corresponding  note  of  the 
drum.'" 

The  art  of  making  the  drum  talk  is  still  known  in  the 
Antilles.  In  "Two  Years  in  the  French  West  Indies,"^ 
Lafcadio  Hearn  says: 

The  old  African  dances,  the  Caleinda  and  the  Bele  (which  latter  is  accom- 
panied by  chanted  improvization),  are  danced  on  Sundays  to  the  sound  of 
the  drum  on  almost  every  plantation  in  the  land.  The  drum,  indeed,  is  an 
instrument  to  which  the  countryfolk  are  so  much  attached  that  they  swear 
by  it,  Tamhou!  being  the  oath  uttered  upon  all  ordinary  occasions  of  surprise 
or  vexation.  But  the  instrument  is  quite  as  often  called  ka  because  made  out 
of  a  quarter-barrel,  or  quart,  in  the  patois  ka.  Both  ends  of  the  barrel 
having  been  removed,  a  wet  hide,  well  wrapped  about  a  couple  of  hoops,  is 
driven  on,  and  in  drying  the  stretched  skin  obtains  still  further  tension.  The 
other  end  of  the  ka  is  always  left  open.  Across  the  face  of  the  skin  a  string  is 
tightly  stretched,  to  which  are  attached,  at  intervals  of  about  an  inch  apart, 
very  thin  fragments  of  bamboo  or  cut  feather  stems.  These  lend  a  certain 
vibration  to  the  tones. 

In  the  time  of  Pere  Labat  the  negro  drums  had  a  somewhat  different  form. 
There  were  then  two  kinds  of  drums — a  big  tamtam  and  a  little  one,  which 
used  to  be  played  together.  Both  consisted  of  skins  tightly  stretched  over 
one  end  of  a  cylinder,  or  a  section  of  a  hollow  tree-trunk.  The  larger  was 
from  three  to  four  feet  long,  with  a  diameter  of  from  15  to  16  inches;  the 
smaller,  Baboula,  was  of  the  same  length,  but  only  eight  or  nine  inches  in 
diameter. 

The  skilful  player  {bel  tambouye),  straddles  his  ka  stripped  to  the  waist, 
and  plays  upon  it  with  the  finger-tips  of  both  hands  simultaneously,  taking 
care  that  the  vibrating  string  occupies  a  horizontal  position.  Occasionally 
the  heel  of  the  naked  foot  is  pressed  lightly  or  vigorously  against  the  skin 
so  as  to  produce  changes  of  tone.  This  is  called  "giving  heel"  to  the  drum — 
bailly  talon.  Meanwhile  a  boy  keeps  striking  the  drum  at  the  uncovered 
end  with  a  stick,  so  as  to  produce  a  dry,  clattering  accompaniment.  The 
sound  of  the  drum  itself,  well  played,  has  a  wild  power  that  makes  and  masters 
ail  the  excitement  of  the  dance — a  complicated  double  roll,  with  a  peculiar 

*  Eduard  Schauenburg,  "Reisen  in  Central-Afrika,"  etc.   Lahr,  1859,  I,  93. 

*  Sir  Alfred  Moloney,  "Notes  on  Yoruba  and  the  Colony  and  Protectorate 
of  Lagos,"  in  The  Proceedings  of  the  Roval  Geographical  Society,  New  Series, 
XII,  596. 

•Harper  &  Bros.;  1890. 

f      66      1 


MUSIC  AMONG  THE  AFRICANS 

billowy  rising  and  falling.  The  Creole  onomatopes,  bUip-bUip-b'lip-b'lip^ 
do  not  fully  render  the  roll;  for  each  stands  really  for  a  series  of  sounds  too 
rapidly  flipped  .out  to  be  imitated  by  articulate  speech.  The  tapping  of  a 
ka  can  be  heard  at  surprising  distances;  and  experienced  players  often  play 
for  hours  at  a  time  without  exhibiting  wearisomeness,  or  in  the  least  diminish- 
ing the  volume  of  sound  produced. 

It  seems  that  there  are  many  ways  of  playing — different  measures  familiar 
to  all  these  colored  people,  but  not  easily  distinguished  by  anybody  else;  and 
there  are  great  matches  sometimes  between  celebrated  tambouye.  The  same 
commande  whose  portrait  I  took  while  playing  told  me  that  he  once  figured 
in  a  contest  of  this  kind,  his  rival  being  a  drummer  from  the  neighboring 
burgh  of  Marigot.     .     .     . 

"J^iV,  aicy  aie!  mon  che — y  fat  tambou-a  pdle!"  said  the  commande,  describing 
the  execution  of  his  antagonist;  "my  dear,  he  just  made  that  drum  talk! 
I  thought  I  was  going  to  be  beaten  for  sure;  I  was  trembling  all  the  time — 
aie,  yaie,  ya'ie!  Then  he  got  off  that  ka.  I  mounted  it;  I  thought  a  moment; 
then  I  struck  up  the  'River-of-the-Lizard' — mats,  mon  che,  yon  larivie-Leza 
toutt  pi!  such  a  'River-of-the-Lizard,'  ah!  just  perfectly  pure!  I  gave  heel 
to  that  ka; — I  worried  that  ka;  I  made  it  mad;  I  made  it  crazy;  I  made  it 
talk;  I  won!" 

In  Unyanebe,  James  Augustus  Grant  says,  the  large  drum 
is  played  by  the  leader,  while  a  youth  apparently  rattled  a 
roll  like  the  boy  in  Hearn's  description.  In  my  notebook  I 
find  a  postcard,  written  by  Hearn  from  New  Orleans  thirty 
years  ago,  which  indicates  that  the  manner  of  drumming 
described  by  Grant  and  also  in  the  above  excerpt  was  also 
common  in  Louisiana.  Hearn  writes:  *'The  Voudoo,  Congo 
and  Caleinda  dances  had  for  orchestra  the  empty  wooden 
box  or  barrel  drum,  the  former  making  a  dry,  rapid  rattle 
like  castanets.  The  man  sat  astride  the  drum."  Max 
Buchner^  says  that  the  drummer  in  Kamerun  does  not  beat 
the  time,  but  a  continuous  roll,  the  time  being  marked  by 
the  songs  of  the  spectators.  An  example  of  the  harmonious 
drumming  such  as  I  heard  in  the  Dahoman  village  is  men- 
tioned by  Hermann  Wissmann  in  his  book  "Unter  deut- 
scher  Flagge  durch  Afrika,"^  who  says  that  "when  the  chief 
of  the  Bashilange  received  the  European  visitors  he  was 
accompanied  in  his  movements  by  a  great  drum  with  a 
splendid  bass  tone.  When  he  declared  friendship  four 
well-tuned  drums  began  to  play,  while  the  assembly  sang 
a  melody  of  seven  tones,  repeating  it  several  times. "^ 

The  musical  instruments  used  in  Africa  do  not  call  for 
extended  study  or  description  here,   since   their  structure 

1  "Kamerun,"  Leipsic,  1887,  page  29. 

2  Berlin,  1889,  page  72. 
*  Wallaschek,  page  115. 

r  67  1 


AFRO-AMERICAN   FOLKSONGS 

has  had  nothing  to  do  with  influencing  the  forms  of  Afro- 
American  folksong.  The  drum  has  received  such  extended 
attention  only  because  it  plays  so  predominant  a  role  in 
the  music  of  America  as  well  as  Africa.  As  the  rhythmical 
figure  which  is  characteristic  of  the  Habanera  (which  dance 
Friedenthal  asserts  is  indubitably  of  African  origin)  domin- 
ates the  dance-melodies  of  Spanish  America,  so  the  "snap" 
which  I  have  found  in  315  of  the  527  melodies  analyzed, 
in  its  degenerate  form  of  "ragtime"  now  dominates  the 
careless  music  of  two  great  countries — the  United  States 
and  England. 

Two  instruments  which  would  have  been  of  incalculable 
value  in  determining  the  prevalent  intervallic  systems  of 
African  music,  had  the  travellers  who  have  described  them 
been  musically  scientific  enough  to  tell  us  how  they  were 
tuned,  are  the  marimba  and  the  zanze,  both  of  which  are 
found  widely  distributed  over  the  Dark  Continent.  In  these 
instruments  the  tone-producing  agency  is  fixed  when  they 
are  made  and  remains  unalterable.  The  marimba, 'which 
has  become  a  national  instrument  in  Mexico,  is  an  instru- 
ment of  the  xylophone  type,  the  tones  of  which  are  struck 
out  of  sonorous  bars  of  wood  and  intensified  by  means 
of  dry  calabashes  of  various  sizes  hung  under  the  bars. 
The  accounts  of  this  instrument  given  by  travellers  do  not 
justify  an  attempt  to  record  its  tunings.  The  zanze  is 
a  small  sound-box,  sometimes  reinforced  by  a  calabash 
or  a  block  of  wood  hollowed  out  in  the  form  of  a  round 
gourd,  to  the  upper  side  of  which,  over  a  bridge,  are  tightly 
affixed  a  series  of  wooden  or  metal  tongues  of  different 
lengths.  The  tongues  are  snapped  with  the  thumbs,  the 
principle  involved  being  that  of  the  familar  music-box,  and 
give  out  a  most  agreeable  sound.  I  find  no  record  in  the 
accounts  of  travellers  as  to  any  systematic  tuning  of  the  in- 
strument, but  a  specimen  from  Zululand  in  my  possession  is 
accurately  tuned  to  the  notes  of  the  pentatonic  scale,  with 
the  addition  of  two  erratic  tones  side  by  side  in  the  middle 
of  the   instrument — a  fact  which  invites  speculation. 

In  the  table  showing  the  results  of  an  analysis  of  527 
songs,  seven  variations  from  the  normal,  or  conventional, 

{    68     1 


MUSIC  AMONG  THE  AFRICANS 

diatonic  major  and  minor  scales  were  recorded,  besides 
the  songs  which  were  set  down  as  of  mixed  or  vague  tonality. 
They  were  (i)  the  major  scale,  with  the  seventh  depressed 
a  semitone,  i,e.,  flatted;  (2)  the  major  scale,  without 
the  seventh  or  leading- tone;  (3)  the  major  scale,  without 
the  fourth;  (4)  the  major  scale,  without  either  seventh  of 
fourth  (the  pentatonic  scale);  (5)  the  minor  scale,  with 
a  raised  or  major  sixth;  (6)  the  minor  scale,  without  the 
sixth,  and  (7)  the  minor  scale,  with  the  raised  seventh — 
the  so-called  harmonic  minor.  Their  variations  or  aber- 
rations shall  occupy  our  attention  in  the  next  chapter. 
For  the  majority  of  them  I  have  found  prototypes  in 
African  music,  as  appears  from  the  specimens  printed  in 
this  chapter. 


[    69    ] 


CHAPTER  VI 

VARIATIONS    FROM   THE 
MAJOR   SCALE 


Peculiarities  of  Negro  Singing — Vagueness  of  Pitch 

IN     Certain     Intervals — Fractional    Tones     in 

Primitive  Music— The  Pentatonic  Scale — The 

Flat  Seventh — Harmonization  of  Negro 

Melodies 


Of  the  527  songs  examined  I  have  set  down  in  my  table 
331  as  being  in  the  major  mode.  To  these,  as  emphasizing 
the  essentially  energetic  and  contented  character  of  Afro- 
American  music,  notwithstanding  that  it  is  the  fruit  of 
slavery,  must  be  added  iii  which  are  pentatonic.  Of 
the  331  major  songs  twenty,  or  a  trifle  more  than  one- 
sixteenth,  have  a  flat  seventh;  seventy-eight — that  is, 
one  fourth — have  no  seventh,  and  forty-five,  or  nearly 
one-seventh,  have  no  fourth.  Fourth  and  seventh  are 
the  tones  which  are  lacking  in  the  pentatonic  scale,  and 
the  songs  without  one  or  the  other  of  them  approach  the 
pentatonic  songs  in  what  may  be  called  their  psychological 
eflPect.  These  are  the  only  variations  of  the  major  scale 
which  can  be  set  down  as  characteristic  of  the  songs.  In 
the  case  of  the  songs  in  the  minor  mode,  eight,  a  fraction 
under  one-eighth,  have  a  major  sixth;  over  one-half  have 
no  sixth  at  all,  and  over  one-third  have  the  leading-tone 
(major  seventh),  which  is  not  an  element  of  the  minor 
scale  proper,  but  with  the  major  sixth  has  been  admitted 
through  the  use  of  accidentals  to  what  musicians  call  the 
harmonic  minor  scale.  In  the  case  of  twenty-three  songs 
I  have  set  down  the  mode  as  mixed  or  vague,  because  the 
scales  do  not  conform  to  either  the  major  or  minor  system, 
but,  in  part,  to  both,  or  have  elements  which  are  obviously 
sporadic. 

It  is  necessary  for  a  correct  understanding  of  the  nature 
of  negro  songs  that  the  testimony  of  the  collectors  touch- 

[     70     ] 


VARIATIONS  FROM  THE  MAJOR  SCALE 

ing  some  of  these  aberrant  intervals  be  heard.  As  I  have 
set  them  down,  the  flat  seventh  in  the  major  and  major 
sixth  in  the  minor  are  more  or  less  approximations  to  the 
tones  as  they  are  sung;  but  the  circumstances  justify 
the  classifications  which  I  have  made.  In  my  own 
defence,  though  it  may  not  be  necessary  to  make  one, 
I  may  say  that  here  I  am  entirely  dependent  upon  the 
evidence  adduced  by  others;  I  did  not  hear  the  songs 
sung  in  slavery,  nor  did  I  come  in  closer  touch  with 
the  generation  which  made  them  generally  known  than 
many  of  my  readers  who  heard  the  Jubilee  Singers 
of  Fisk  University  on  their  first  concert  tour.  It  was 
their  singing  which  interested  me  in  the  subject,  and 
it  was  forty  years  ago  that  I  began  my  observations, 
which  I  was  not  permitted  to  extend  personally  into 
the  regions  where  research  should  have  been  made,  and 
where  I  vainly  tried  to  have  it  made  through  other  agencies. 

"It  is  difficult,"  said  Miss  McKim,i  *'to  express  the 
entire  character  of  these  negro  ballads  by  mere  musical 
notes  and  signs.  The  odd  turns  made  in  the  throat  and 
the  curious  rhythmic  effect  produced  by  single  voices 
chiming  in  at  difi"erent  irregular  intervals  seem  almost  as 
impossible  to  place  on  the  score  as  the  singing  of  birds  or 
the  tones  of  an  aeolian  harp." 

"Another  obstacle  to  its  rendering  is  the  fact  that  tones 
are  frequently  employed  whichwehaveno musical  characters 
to  represent.  Such,  for  example,  is  that  which  I  have  indi- 
cated as  nearly  as  possible  by  the  flat  seventh  in  *Great 
Camp  Meetin',  *Hard  Trials,'  and  others,"  says  Thomas 
P.  Fenner,  in  the  preface  to  "Cabin  and  Plantation  Songs," 
and  he  continues:  "These  tones  are  variable  in  pitch, 
ranging  through  an  entire  interval  on  difl'erent  occasions, 
according  to  the  inspiration  of  the  singer.  They  are  rarely 
discordant,  and  even  add  a  charm  to  the  performance.'* 
Miss  Emily  Hallowell's  "Calhoun  Plantation  Songs"  bear 
evidence  of  having  been  more  carefully  noted  than  the 
Fisk  or  Hampton  collections,  though  made  at  a  much  later 
date.     In  her  preface  Miss  Hallo  well  says:     "I  have  tried 

*  "Slave  Songs,"  page  6. 

[    71    1 


AFRO-AMERICAN   FOLKSONGS 

to  write  them  down  just  as  they  were  sung,  retaining 
all  the  peculiarities  of  rhythm,  melody,  harmony  and  text; 
but  those  who  have  heard  these  or  other  like  songs  sung 
by  the  colored  people  of  the  South  will  realize  that  it  is 
impossible  to  more  than  suggest  their  beauty  and  charm; 
they  depend  so  largely  upon  the  quality  of  voice,  the  un- 
erring sense  of  rhythm  and  the  quaint  religious  spirit 
peculiar  to  the  colored  people  who  have  spent  their  lives 
on  Alabama  cotton  plantations,  untouched  by  civilization." 
Miss  Mildred  J.  Hill,  of  Louisville,  who  gathered  for  me 
some  of  the  most  striking  songs  in  my  collection  from  the 
singing  of  an  old  woman  who  had  been  a  slave  in  Boyle 
County,  Ky.,  was  careful  to  note  all  deviations  from  just 
intonation,  and  from  her  songs  I  came  to  the  conclusion 
that  the  negroes  were  prone  to  intervallic  aberrations, 
not  only  in  the  case  of  the  seventh,  but  also  in  the  third. 
This  is  a  common  phenomenon  in  folk-music.  It  was  the 
observation  of  the  composer  Spohr  that  rural  people  intone 
the  third  rather  sharp,  the  fourth  still  sharper,  and  the 
seventh  rather  flat.  Vagaries  of  this  kind  emphasize  the  fact 
that  the  diatonic  scale — the  tempered  scale,  at  any  rate — 
as  used  in  artistic  music  is  a  scientific  evolution,  and  not 
altogether  a  productof  nature,  as  some  persons  assume,  who 
in  consequence  attribute  the  slightest  fractional  variation 
from  its  tones  to  exquisite  appreciation  of  tonal  differences. 
The  speculations  on  this  point  in  which  some  professed 
students  of  the  music  of  the  North  American  Indians 
have  indulged  have  reached  a  degree  of  absurdity  almost 
laughable.  In  one  case  changes  of  pitch,  which  were 
most  obviously  the  result  of  differences  of  speed  in  the 
revolution  of  the  cylinder  of  the  phonograph  used  in  the 
collection  of  Zuni  songs,  were  gravely  declared  to  be  evi- 
dence of  a  musical  sense  which  could  not  be  satisfied  with 
the  semitones  of  civilized  musicians.  The  melodies  had 
been  recorded  by  treadle  power  and  transmitted  for  no- 
tation by  electric.  To  prove  the  valuelessness  of  music 
thus  obtained  I  experimented  with  a  pitch-pipe  and  a 
phonograph,  and  by  varying  the  speed  of  the  revolutions 
of  the  cylinder  in  making  the  record  easily  ran  the  pitch 

[     72    ] 


VARIATIONS  FROM  THE  MAJOR  SCALE 

of  my  C  up  and  down  an  octave  like  the  voice  of  a  siren. 
Why  savages  who  have  never  developed  a  musical  or  any 
other  art  should  be  supposed  to  have  more  refined  aesthetic 
sensibilities  than  the  peoples  who  have  cultivated  music 
for  centuries,   passes   my  poor  powers  of  understanding. 

But  the  contemplation  of  savage  life  seems  to  have  a 
tendency  to  make  the  imagination  (especially  that  of 
sympathetic  people)  slip  its  moorings.  My  own  experience 
with  Indian  music  has  convinced  me  that  the  red  man 
is  markedly  unmusical.  That  appears  to  me  to  be  amply 
proved  by  the  paucity  of  melody  in  the  songs  of  the  Indians, 
their  adherence  to  a  stereotyped  intervallic  formula,  regard- 
less of  the  use  to  which  the  song  is  put,  and  their  lack  of 
agreement  in  pitch  when  singing.  To  the  Indian  music  is 
chiefly  an  element  of  ritual;  its  practice  is  obligatory,  and 
it  is  not  per  se  an  expression  of  beauty  for  beauty's  sake 
or  an  emotional  utterance  which  a  love  for  euphony  has 
regulated  and  moulded  into  a  thing  of  loveliness.  It  reaches 
its  climax  in  the  wild  and  monotonous  chants  which 
accompany  their  gambling  games  and  their  ghost-dances. 

There  is  a  significance  which  I  cannot  fathom  in  the 
circumstance  that  the  tones  which  seem  rebellious  to  the 
negro's  sense  of  intervallic  propriety  are  the  fourth  and 
seventh  of  the  diatonic  major  series  and  the  fourth,  sixth 
and  seventh  of  the  minor.  The  omission  of  the  fourth  and 
seventh  intervals  of  the  major  scale  leaves  the  pentatonic 
series  on  which  iiiofthe  527  songs  analyzed  are  built. 
The  fact  is  an  evidence  of  the  strong  inclination  of  the 
American  negroes  toward  this  scale,  which  is  even  more 
pervasive  in  their  music  than  it  is  in  the  folksongs  of 
Scotland,  popularly  looked  upon  as  peculiarly  the  home 
of  the  pentatonic  scale.  On  this  imperfect  scale  the 
popular  music  of  China,  Japan  and  Siam  rests;  it  is 
common,  too,  in  the  music  of  Ireland,  and  I  have  found 
many  examples  in  the  music  of  the  American  Indians 
and  the  peoples  of  Africa.  The  melody  of  the  "Warrior's 
Song"  in  Coleridge-Taylor's  fine  book  of  pianoforte  tran- 
scriptions entitled  "Twenty-four  Negro  Melodies, "V  is   a 

*  Boston:  Oliver  Ditson  Company. 

[  73   ] 


AFRO-AMERICAN   FOLKSONGS 

pentatonic  tune  from  the  Ba-Ronga  country,  and  Cole- 
ridge-Taylor says  of  it  that  its  subject  "is  certainly  not 
unworthy  of  any  composer — from  Beethoven  downward. 
It  is  at  once  simple,  strong  and  noble,  and  probably  stands 
higher  than  any  other  example  of  purely  'savage'  music  in 
these  respects."  Except  that  it  lent  itself  so  admirably 
to  artistic  treatment,  I  cannot  see  why  this  melody  should 
have  been  singled  out  by  Mr.  Coleridge-Taylor  for  such 
extraordinary  praise;  many  of  the  American  slave  songs 
are  equally  simple,  strong  and  noble  and  more  beautiful. 
Yet  it  is  a  specially  welcome  example  because  it  comes 
from  Africa. 

The  temptation  is  strong  to  look  upon  the  pentatonic 
scale  as  the  oldest,  as  it  certainly  is  the  most  widespread 
and  the  most  serviceable,  of  intervallic  systems.  It  is  the 
scale  in  which  melody  may  be  said  to  be  naturally  innate. 
Play  it  at  random  on  the  black  keys  of  the  pianoforte, 
and  so  you  keep  symmetry  of  period  and  rhythm  in  mind 
you  cannot  help  producing  an  agreeable  melody;  and  it  will 
be  pentatonic.  (See  "Nobody  Knows  de  Trouble  Tve 
Seen,"  page  75.) 

The  history  of  the  pentatonic  scale  has  baffled  investi- 
gators, for  it  is  older  than  history.  China  has  a  musical 
instrument  called  hiuen,  the  invention  of  which  is  said 
(fantastically,  no  doubt)  to  date  back  to  B.  C.  2800.  It 
emits  only  the  five  tones  of  the  pentatonic  scale.  Instru- 
ments with  the  same  limitations  and  qualities  have  been 
found  among  the  remains  of  the  lost  civilizations  of  Mexico 
and  Peru,  and  are  still  in  existence  in  Nubia  and  Abyssinia. 
I  have  mentioned  a  Zulu  zanze  which  is  in  my  possession — 
a  little  instrument  so  stoutly  built  that  it  is  likely  to  survive 
centuries.  It  has  pentatonic  tuning  down  to  two  middle 
tongues,  which  emit  strangely  aberrant  tones.  The  key  is 
D-flat.  The  tongues  on  one  side  emit  the  descending  order, 
D-fiat,  E-flat  and  B-flat;  on  the  other,  B-flat,  F,  D-flat  and 
A-flat.  The  instrument  is  played  by  plucking  and  snap- 
ping the  metal  tongues  with  the  thumbs;  any  two  plucked 
by  a  thumb  simultaneously  produce  an  agreeable  con- 
cord.     Between   the   right   and   left  rows  of  tongues   lie 

[  74  ] 


VARIATIONS  FROM  THE  MAJOR  SCALE 


Nobody  Knows  de  Trouble  fveSeen 


Rellffioso 

— 



F= 

■ 

Nobod-y  knows  de 

ii  It ,  ;,     ■  ^^ 

1'  p  r  r 

trouble  IVe  seen, 

1  J~l  J  J 

Nobod*7  knows  but 

1  ji  1    ,  J    J  1 

Je-sus, 

1      1      > 

3 

f 

r                  -0 

[ 

Pat 

-^^43           j 

bl 

1 d 

■^. 

T  r  M 

1  .g  It ,  ■ — r  J    K 

k-^    .  - 

— - 

P=F 

— 1^ 

Nobod-y  knows  de 

tro 

u-ble  Ive  se 

en, 

Glo  -  ry  hal  -  le    - 

lu 

— 1- 

«i  II 

-     jahl 

"^     J      - 

0"=^'=3=^ 

f---^ 

J-  Ji   i 

f 

^ 

[=^ 

*=^ 

h=H 

H= 

^^=i= 

1 ^ 

•S 

N 

i=^ 

^ 

=i3 

1.  Some  -  times    I'm    up,  some  -  times    I'm  downl      O       yes,       Lord!  Some- 

2.  What    makes  old    Sa  -  tan       hate     me    so?  O       yes,       LordI    Be  . 

4= 


times         Im         al  -  most  to      de     groun';       O        yes, 

cause  he  g-ot  me  once,  but  he       let     me     g-o;  O        yes. 


Lordl 
Lordl 


§g^ 


m 


Ad  exampler  of  a  melody  In  the  pentatonic  scale  (withoat  tbe  fourth  and  seventh  degrees). 
From  "Slaye  Songs  af  tlieU&ite4  States,"  the  anugemeat  for  thi»  work  by  H.T.  Burleigh. 


[    75    ] 


AFRO-AMERICAN   FOLKSONGS 

the  two  which  give  out  the  strange,  wild  notes  A  and  B. 
How  these  tones  were  melodically  introduced  only  a  musi- 
cian hearing  the  instrument  played  by  a  native  could  tell. 

In  an  article  on  Scottish  music  in  Grove's  "Dictionary 
•of  Music  and  Musicians"  Mr.  Frank  Kidson  observes 
that  "whether  this  pentatonic  series  was  acquired  through 
the  use  of  a  defective  instrument,  or  from  the  melodic 
taste  of  a  singer  or  player,  must  remain  mere  matter  of 
conjecture."  Scarcely,  so  far  as  its  hypothetical  instru- 
mental origin  is  concerned.  The  iirst  melodies  were 
vocal,  and  among  primitive  peoples  instruments  are  made 
for  the  music — not  music  for  the  instruments.  Defects 
in  instruments  are  the  results  of  faulty  adjustments  of 
mechanical  means  to  desired  ends.  Prehistoric  whistles, 
with  finger-holes  to  produce  five  tones  only,  were  made 
so  that  melodies  with  five  tones  might  be  played  on  them. 
The  melodies  were  not  invented  because  the  makers  of 
the  whistles  neglected  to  make  a  larger  number  of  finger- 
holes  or  to  dispose  them  differently. 

Many  years  ago  the  Rev.  Dr.  Wentworth,  the  editor  of 
"The  Ladies'  Repository,"  a  magazine  published  by  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  who  had  been  a  missionary 
in  China,  told  me  that  he  had  observed  that  his  congrega- 
tion became  singularly  and  unaccountably  dissonant  at 
certain  places  in  every  hymn-tune  adopted  from  the 
Methodist  hymnal.  When  I  told  him  that  the  Chinese, 
while  admitting  the  theoretical  existence  of  the  fourth 
and  seventh  intervals  of  the  diatonic  scale,  eschewed  them 
in  practice,  and  asked  him  whether  or  not  they  had  been 
the  troublesome  tones,  he  expressed  the  opinion  that  I  had 
explained  a  fact  which  he  had  looked  upon  as  inexplicable. 
Not  having  made  the  experiment  myself,  I  could  not  say 
whether  or  not  he  was  right;  but  it  is  certainly  conceivable 
that  centuries  of  habit  might  atrophy  the  musical  faculty 
of  a  people  so  as  to  make  the  production  of  a  tone  as  part 
of  an  intervallic  system  difiicult  and  lead  to  its  modification 
when  occasion  called  for  its  introduction.  In  some  such 
manner  it  is  not  unlikely  that  the  flat  seventh  of  the  major 
scale  in  the  music  of  the  American   negroes  may  be  ac- 

f     76     1 


VARIATIONS  FROM  THE  MAJOR  SCALE 

counted  for.  This,  however,  Is  a  mere  hypothesis.  Though 
not  a  common  feature  of  the  folksongs  of  other  peoples, 
it  does  occur  here.  It  is  found  in  a  Servian  kolo  dance 
printed  by  Engel  in  his  "Introduction  to  the  Study  of 
National  Music,"  and  also  in  some  Arabic  tunes.  Students 
of  the  old  ecclesiastical  modes  recognize  it  as  an  element 
of  the  Mixolydian  mode,  with  its  intervals  G,  A,  B,  C,  D, 
E  and  F-natural. 

Whether  the  employment  of  the  flat  seventh  is  due  to 
an  innate  harmonic  sense  on  the  part  of  its  users,  which 
sometimes  discloses  itself  very  markedly  in  an  evident 
feeling  for  the  subdominant  relationship,  or  is  a  purely 
melodic  factor  (as  in  Gregorian  music),  is  a  question  which 
I  shall  not  undertake  to  determine.  In  the  case  of  a  very 
stirring  hymn,  *'Dere's  a  Great  Campmeetin'  "  (see  page 
78),  the  harmonic  impulse  seems  to  me  most  obvious, 
though  there  is  no  other  song  which  I  have  found  in  which 
the  flat  seventh  strikes  the  ear  with  such  barbaric  force 
as  it  does  in  this.  Here  the  first  section  of  the  melody 
closes  with  a  perfect  cadence  in  the  key  of  E-flat;  the 
second  section  begins  abruptly  with  an  apparently  unrelated 
shout  on  D-flat — "Gwine  to  mourn,  and  nebber  tire" — 
which  leads  directly,  as  the  eff'ect  shows,  into  the  key  of 
A-flat,  the  subdominant  of  E-flat.  The  transition  has 
a  singularly  bright  and  enlivening  eff'ect  and  the  return 
to  the  original  key  is  easy  and  natural. 

The  specimen  illustrating  the  use  of  the  flat  seventh 
given  in  the  examples  of  African  prototypes  in  the  pre- 
ceding chapter  was  noted  at  the  Chicago  World's  Fair 
by  Heinrich  Zoellner,  the  German  composer.  I  was  never 
fortunate  enough  in  my  visits  to  the  Dahoman  Village 
to  hear  the  dancers  sing.  Mr.  Zoellner  witnessed  two  choral 
dances  and  wrote  down  the  vocal  music,  which  he  placed 
at  my  disposal.  In  the  first  dance  the  Dahomans  sang 
a  slow  phrase  of  two  measures  in  C  major  without  the 
seventh  over  and  over  again,  while  the  band  drummed  in 
double  time  and  the  dancers  advanced  and  retreated 
without  particular  regard  to  the  rhythm,  some  individuals 
indulging  in  fancy  steps  ad  lib.    Then  there  came  a  change 

[     77    1 


AFRO-AMERICAN   FOLKSONGS 


A  Great  Campmeetin' 


h,    walk    to-g-ed-der,  chil-dren,     Dont  you  g:et  •  a    wear-y, 


Walk  to-g-edder,  chil-dren,  Dont  you  g-et  wear- y,        Walk  tog-edder, children, 


Don't  youg-et-awear-yjDere's  a     great  campmeet- in*  in  de  promised  land. 


tnoxim  an  nebber       tire;    Dere's  a    great  campmeet- in' in  de  promised  land.' 


From  the  Hampton  collection,  'Religions  Folk-Soo^  of  the  Neg^ro'.'  A  fine  example  of  the  ef- 
fect prodnced  by  the  flat  seventh. 


78 


VARIATIONS  FROM  THE  MAJOR  SCALE 

of  tempo  and  rhythm,  and  also  in  the  manner  of  singing 
and  dancing.  The  drummers  changed  from  double  to 
compound-triple  time,  the  singers  separated  into  two 
choirs  and  sang  the  antiphonal  Allegro  phrase  printed  in 
the  table  of  examples,  and  began  to  keep  step  with  absolute 
precision. 

In  what  key  is  this  phrase  .f^  Not  in  C  minor,  as  the 
prevalence  of  C,  E-flat  and  G  would  seem  to  suggest  at 
first  sight;  the  A  is  too  disturbing  for  that.  But  if  one 
should  conceive  the  phrase  as  being  in  F,  the  explanation 
is  at  hand.  Then  it  will  be  seen  that  the  phrase  illustrates 
the  use  of  the  flat  seventh.  This  E-flat  is  now  felt  as 
the  essential  element  of  the  dominant  seventh-chord  of  the 
subdominant  key,  B-flat.  In  "A  Great  Campmeetin'  " 
the  corresponding  tone  leads  into  this  key  as  the  song  is 
sung  and  as  it  appears  in  the  books;  but  it  must  be  observed 
that  the  harmonization  was  made  by  Mr.  Fenner,  who 
has  not  told  us  to  what  extent  he  received  hints  from  his 
singers.  The  Dahomans  seemed  satisfied  to  treat  the  E-flat 
as  a  grace-note  and  found  gratification  for  their  sense  of 
repose  in  the  F  major  triad  suggested  by  the  concluding 
C.  When  I  consulted  Mr.  Arthur  Mees,  who  gave  parti- 
cular attention  to  the  ecclesiastical  modes  when  a  student 
of  Weitzmann,  in  Berlin,  as  to  his  opinion  on  the  subject 
under  consideration,  he  wrote  me:  "The  use  of  the  flat 
seventh  seems  to  be  quite  common  to  old  melodies.  Just 
such  a  one  as  you  quote  as  being  Dahoman  I  found  in  an 
attempted  deciphering  of  Hebrew  melodies  from  Hebrew 
accents.  It  is,  I  think,  true  that  the  dropping  into  the 
subdominant  is  a  sort  of  relaxation  of  musical  fancy  {Vor- 
stellung),  while  modulation  into  the  dominant  is  a  climb- 
ing up  process,  which  can  be  accomplished  by  not  less 
than  two  chords.  (I  mean  two  diflferent  roots.)  I  do  not 
feel  a  modulation  with  the  introduction  of  the  low  seventh, 
but  a  melodic  peculiarity  which  is  enforced  and  made 
piquant  by  the  mental  effort  (unconscious)  to  retain  the 
original  tonality  after  the  flat  seventh  has  been  heard.''  Mr. 
Mees  added  that  he  felt  the  scale  of  the  phrase  just  as  he 
felt  the  scale  of  the  Mixolydian  mode. 

f     79    1 


AFRO-AMERICAN   FOLKSONGS 


Weeping  Mary- 


Ten.  II 


Bass  I 


Call      up .  oa  your    Je .  sus^     and    He'll  draw  aigb.     Hell   draw  nig-h 


O,— ,   ^lo-ry,  g-Io-ry  hal-le-ltt- jah,  Glo-ry  be  to  myGod.whoruIesonliigrhl 


Arraosed  for  men's  voices  by  Arthur  Mees,  for  the  Uendelssoha  Glee  Clab  of  New  York.  By 
permissioa. 


[     80    ] 


VARIATIONS  FROM  THE  MAJOR  SCALE 

Some  time  afterward  Mr.  Mees  arranged  several  negro 
songs  for  men's  voices  and  performed  them  at  a  concert 
of  the  Mendelssohn  Glee  Club  of  New  York.  One  of  them 
was  *Weeping  Mary,"  which  is  reproduced  in  this  chapter. 
(See  page  80.)  This  brought  the  topic  of  how  the  negro 
songs  ought  to  and  might  be  harmonized  into  discussion, 
and  Mr.  Mees  wrote  me: 

It  is  a  most  interesting  subject.  The  first  question  that  arises  in  examining 
a  tone-succession  so  strange  to  us  is  this:  Did  the  people  to  whom  a  particular 
one  is  credited  intuitively  feel  a  harmonic  substratum  to  the  melodies  they 
invented?  So  far  as  the  negroes  are  concerned,  I  believe  that  the  intuition 
of  harmony  was  peculiar  to  them.  I  have  spoken  with  many  Southern 
people,  and  they  all  speak  of  the  love  of  harmony  that  is  peculiar  to  the 
negroes.  If  that  is  true,  the  altered  tones  they  introduce  in  the  scales  on 
which  their  melodies  are  constructed  have  a  harmonic  significance,  and  the 
frequent  introduction  of  a  minor  seventh  would  point  to  a  tendency  toward 
the  subdominant,  as  you  suggest.  This  would  be  true  of  melodies  in  the 
major  mode  only,  for  the  seventh  in  the  minor  mode,  according  to  Weitzmann 
and  his  followers,  is  the  normal  tone  in  the  minor  mode,  and  the  large  seventh 
the  variant,  introduced  because  of  the  requirement  in  modern  music  of  the 
leading-tone  to  make  the  cadence  authoritative.     .     .     . 

In  "Weeping  Mary,"  which  in  my  arrangement  is  in  G  minor,  the  E 
natural  is  very  interesting  and  produces  a  fine  effect.  It  is  the  raised  sixth 
in  minor.  Ziehn  in  his  "Harmonielehre"  quotes  a  striking  example  of  the 
same  progression  from  Beethoven. 

Mr.  Mees's  letter  has  brought  us  around  again  to  the 
subject  of  the  use  of  harmony  in  the  Afro-American  folk- 
songs. In  "Slave  Songs  of  the  United  States"  the  tunes 
only  are  printed,  and  of  their  performance  Mr.  Allen  said 
in  his  preface: 

There  is  no  singing  in  partSy  as  we  understand  it,  and  yet  no  two  appear 
to  be  singing  the  same  thing;  the  leading  singer  starts  the  words  of  each  verse, 
often  improvising,  and  the  others,  who  "base'*  him,  as  it  is  called,  strike  in 
with  the  refrain,  or  even  join  in  the  solo  when  the  words  are  familiar.  When 
the  "base"  begins  the  leader  often  stops,  leaving  the  rest  of  the  words  to 
be  guessed  at,  or  it  may  be  they  are  taken  up  by  one  of  the  other  singers. 
And  the  "basers"  themselves  seem  to  follow  their  own  whims,  beginning  when 
they  please  and  leaving  off  when  they  please,  striking  an  octave  above  or 
below  (in  case  they  have  pitched  the  tune  too  high),  or  hitting  some  other 
note  that  chords,  so  as  to  produce  the  effect  of  a  marvellous  complication  and 
variety  and  yet  with  the  most  perfect  time  and  rarely  with  any  discord.  And 
what  makes  it  all  the  harder  to  unravel  a  thread  of  melody  out  of  this  strange 
network  is  that,  like  birds,  they  seem  not  infrequently  to  strike  sounds  that 
cannot  be  precisely  represented  by  the  gamut  and  abound  in  "slides  from  one 
note  to  another  and  turns  and  cadences  not  in  articulated  notes." 

The  peculiar  style  of  singing  described  in  the  concluding 
words  has  been  made  familiar  by  several  singers  who  have 
used  the  songs  on  the  concert  platform,  particularly  by  Mrs. 

I     81     ] 


AFRO-AMERICAN   FOLKSONGS 

Jeannette  Robinson  Murphy.  In  a  personal  letter  to  the 
writer,  dated  July  i6,  1913,  Miss  Emily  Hallowell  says 
of  her  book: 

I  have  always  thought  that  the  time  would  come  when  some  student 
would  find  the  "Calhoun  Collection"  of  greater  service  than  most  of  the 
other  publications,  for  two  reasons:  As  far  as  my  ability  allowed  they  were 
written  precisely  as  they  were  sung,  while  in  most  collections  they  have  been 
arranged  for  ordinary  quartet  singing;  and  as  the  people  of  Calhoun  are  so 
much  more  remote  than  in  most  localities,  their  singing  in  1900  was  almost 
exactly  as  it  was  before  the  war.  .  .  .  I  got  most  of  the  songs  from  young 
people,  too  young  to  remember  slavery,  but  I  have  heard  many  of  them  sung 
by  the  old  people,  and  the  melodies  were  the  same,  but  the  harmonies  I  have 
written  were  all  taken  from  the  pupils  in  the  Calhoun  school.  The  old  people's 
harmonies  seem  to  arise  from  each  holding  to  their  own  version  of  the  melodies 
or  from  limitation  of  compass. 

I  have  cited  instances  of  the  employment  of  harmony 
in  Africa.  In  my  notebook  I  find  an  interesting  example, 
which  I  obtained  from  Mr.  George  L.  White,  teacher  and 
manager  of  the  Jubilee  Singers  after  their  return  from  their 
memorable  trip  to  Germany  in  1877.  It  is  a  hymn  which 
Dr.  Wangemann  heard  sung,  with  great  effect,  as  he 
testified,  by  a  congregation  of  three  hundred  Kaffirs  in  a 
Presbyterian  mission  in  Emgravali.  Its  composition  was 
attributed  to  a  Kaffir  named  U-Utrikana,  the  first  member 
of  his  tribe  to  embrace  Christianity,  who  became  a  sort 
of  black  Sankey  and  travelled  all  over  his  country  as  a 
singing  evangelist.  "He  was  honored  as  a  prophet  by  his 
people,"  wrote  Dr.  Wangemann  on  the  transcript  of  the 
hymn  which  he  made  from  memory  for  Mr.  White.  What 
the  words  mean  I  do  not  know,  but  musically  the  song 
consists  of  two  solos  and  refrains,  the  solos  sung  in  unison, 
the  refrains  in  full  harmony,  consisting  of  the  tonic  and 
dominant  triads.  As  a  rule,  the  songs  of  the  Afro-Americans 
are  so  obviously  built  on  a  harmonic  basis  and  show  so 
plainly  the  influence  of  civilized  music  that  I  have  no 
doubt  the  majority  of  them  were  sung  in  simple  harmony — 
at  least  the  refrains.  The  phrases  containing  the  "wild 
notes,"  as  I  call  them,  were  just  as  certainly  sung  in 
unison  and  are  most  effective  when  left  without  har- 
mony, as  is  the  rule  (though  I  have  made  a  few  exceptions) 
in  this  collection. 


[    82    ] 


CHAPTER  VII 

MINOR  VARIATIONS 
AND    CHARACTERISTIC    RHYTHMS 


Vagaries   in  the   Minor   Scale — The   Sharp  Sixth — 
Orientalism — The    "Scotch"    Snap — A    Note    on 
THE  Tango  Dance — Even  and  Uneven  Meas- 
ures— Adjusting  Words  and  Music 


The  frequent  aberrations  from  the  major  scale  in  the 
songs  of  the  American  negroes,  which  I  have  pointed  out, 
serve  effectually  to  disprove  Wallaschek's  contention  that 
they  are  nothing  more  than  imitations  of  European  songs — 
"unmistakably  arranged"  or  "ignorantly  borrowed"  from 
the  national  songs  of  European  peoples.  There  is  but  one 
body  of  specifically  national  song  with  which  the  slave  of 
the  United  States  could  by  any  possibility  have  become 
familiar — the  Scottish,  with  its  characteristic  pentatonic 
scale  and  rhythmical  snap;  but  the  singing  of  Scottish 
ballads  was  not  so  general  in  the  South  that  their  pecu- 
liarities could  become  the  common  property  of  the  field- 
hands  on  the  plantations.  The  negroes  in  the  Antilles 
and  South  America  were  in  a  very  different  case.  Reci- 
procal influences  were  stronger  there,  where  social  lines 
were  more  loosely  drawn  and  where  the  races  amalgamated 
to  an  extent  which  threatened  the  institution  of  slavery 
itself;  but  even  there  the  impress  of  African  music  is 
unmistakable  and  indelible.  Spanish  melody  has  been 
imposed  on  African  rhythm.  In  the  United  States  the 
rhythmical  element,  though  still  dominant,  has  yielded 
measurably  to  the  melodic,  the  dance  having  given 
way  to  religious  worship,  sensual  bodily  movement  to 
emotional  utterance. 

The  demonstration  of  independence  of  European  in- 
fluence is  still  more  striking  in  the  case  of  the  minor  songs 
and  those  of  mixed  or  vague  tonality.  The  variations 
from  the  minor  scale  which  I  have  classified  are  those  dis- 

[    83     ] 


AFRO-AMERICAN   FOLKSONGS 

closing  the  major  seventh  (the  leading- tone),  the  use 
of  the  major  sixth  and  the  absence  of  the  sixth.  Other 
aberrations  are  not  pronounced  enough  to  justify  being 
set  down  as  characteristic  features. 

There  is  no  special  significance  in  the  prevalence  of  the 
leading-tone  in  minor  melodies  (it  was  found  in  nineteen 
songs  out  of  sixty-two),  beyond  the  evidence  which  it  may 
offer  of  the  influence  of  the  European  system  in  which  the 
seventh  step  of  the  minor  scale  is  arbitrarily  raised  a  semi- 
tone for  the  sake  of  a  satisfactory  harmonic  cadence.  To 
avoid  the  abnormal  interval  of  a  second  consisting  of 
three  semitones  European  theorists  also  raise  the  sixth, 
thus  obtaining  the  conventional  ascending  minor  scale — 
the  melodic  minor.  It  cannot  be  without  significance 
that  what  I  am  prone  to  consider  a  primitive  melodic 
sense  seems  to  have  led  the  negroes  to  rebel  at  this  pro- 
cedure. In  thirty-four  out  of  sixty-two  minor  melodies 
the  troublesome  sixth  (the  avoided  fourth  in  the  major 
mode)  is  omitted  entirely,  and  in  eight  it  is  raised  to  a 
major  interval  without  disturbing  the  seventh.  The  major 
sixth  in  the  minor  mode  presents  itself  as  an  independent 
melodic  element,  the  effect  of  which  is  most  potently  felt 
when  it  is  left  unharmonized — which  is  not  the  case  in  one 
of  the  illustrative  examples  which  I  present.^  The  minor 
tunes  with  the  major  sixth  are  thus  without  the  leading- 
tone,  and  the  physiological  effect  of  the  errant  interval  is 
even  more  striking  than  the  flat  seventh  in  the  major  tunes. 

No  one  who  heard  Miss  Jackson,  the  contralto  of  the 
original  Fisk  Jubilee  choir,  sing  "You  May  Bury  Me  in 
the  East,''2  without  accompaniment  of  any  sort,  is  likely 
to  have  forgotten  the  clarion  sound  of  her  voice  on  the 
word  "trumpet."  This  was  the  only  song  of  its  kind  in 
the  repertory  of  the  Jubilee  Singers,  the  other  minor  songs 
either  having  no  sixth  or  having  the  leading-tone.  A  fine 
example  in  my  manuscript  collection  excited  the  admira- 
tion of  M.  Tiersot,  who  sets  it  down  In  his  brochure  as  an 
illustration  of  the  first  Gregorian  tone.  It  is  a  revival 
hymn,  "Come  tremble-ing  down,"  and  in  it  the  "wood" 

*  See  "Come  tremble-ing  down,"  page  85. 

•  See  page  86. 

I    84    ] 


MINOR  VARIATIONS;   CHARACTERISTIC  RHYTHMS 


'Come  trembleing  down" 


Allegretto 


Come     tremble-ing-down,g-o    shout-ing- home,Safe  in  the  sweet  arms  of 


Je   -    sus,Come  Je    -  sxisjTwas  just  a-b out  the  break  of  daj^ King- Je-stis  stole  my 


heart  a-way;'Twasjust  a-bout  thebreak  of  daxKing-  Je-sus  stolemy   heart  a-way. 


A  spiritnal  from  Boyle  Co.,  Kentucky,  transcribed  from  the  singing  of  a  former  slave  for 
the  anther  by  Miss  Ifildred  J.  Hill,  of  Louisville.  A  fine  ezaa^le  of  the  raised  sixth  in  the 
minor  mode.  Arrailged  by  the  author. 


[  8S  1 


AFRO-AMERICAN   FOLKSONGS 


You  May  Bury  Me  in  de  Eas' 


1.  You  may  bur-y  me  in  de  Eas',  you  may  bur -y  me  in  de  Wes',  But  I'll 


hear  de  trumpet  sounL    in  dat  morn   -    in';    In  dat   morn   -    in'.myLord, 


How  I    long*  to  g'o  For  to  '  hear  de  trumpet  soun'  in  dat    mom  -     in'. 


S.  Father  Gabriel  in  dat  day, 
He'll  take  wing^s  and  fly  away, 
For  to  hear  de  trumpet  soun' 

In  dat  momin'. 
You  may  bury  him,  etc. 


3.  Good  ole  Christians  in  dat  day, 
Dey'll  take  wing^s  and  fly  away, 
etc. 

4-  Good  ole  preachers  in  dat  day, 
Dey'll  take  wing-s,  etc. 


6.  In  dat  dreadful  judgfmen*  day 
111  take  wingrs,  etc. 

Melody  from  "The  Story  of  the  Jubilee  Singers*';  arrangement  for  this  work  by  H.T.  Bar> 
leif b.  One  of  the  finest  examples  extant  of  the  effect  of  the  major  sixth  ia  the  aaisor  mode. 


[    86    ] 


MINOR  VARIATIONS;   CHARACTERISTIC  RHYTHMS 

note  wild"  has  a  barbaric  shout  of  jubilation  to  which 
correct  verbal  accent  has  been  sacrificed: 

Come  tremble-ing  down,  go  shouting  home, 

Safe  in  the  sweet  arms  of  Jesus. 
'Twas  just  about  the  break  o/day 
King  Jesus  stole  my  heart  away. 

Concerning  the  text  of  this  song  it  may  be  said  that  it 
is  scarcely  to  be  wondered  at  that  the  amorous  sentiment 
of  many  Methodist  and  Baptist  revival  hymns  finds  its 
echo  in  the  hymns  of  the  negroes. 

The  interval  containing  three  semitones,  which  the  in- 
ventors of  modern  Occidental  harmony  avoided  by  arbi- 
trary alteration  of  the  minor  scale,  is  so  marked  an  element 
in  the  music  of  Southeastern  Europe  and  Western  Asia 
that  the  scale  on  which  much  of  this  music  is  based  is 
called  the  Oriental  scale  in  the  books.  It  is  found  in  the 
melodies  of  the  Arabs,  of  the  peoples  of  the  Balkan  penin- 
sula, of  the  Poles  and  Magyars.  The  ancient  synagogal 
hymns  of  the  Jews  are  full  of  it.  In  some  cases  it  results 
from  raising  the  fourth  interval  of  the  minor  scale;  in 
others  from  raising  the  seventh.  In  many  cases,  of  which 
the  "Rakoczy  March"  is  a  familiar  and  striking  example, 
the  interval  occurs  twice.  The  peculiar  wailing  effect  of 
the  Oriental  scale,  most  noticeable  when  the  intervals  are 
sounded  in  descending  order,  is  also  to  be  heard  in  the  song 
of  the  priestesses  and  their  dance  in  "Aida"  and  in  Rubin- 
stein's song,  "Der  Asra." 

One  of  the  songs  in  my  manuscript  collection  shows  a 
feeling  for  the  augmented,  or  superfluous  second,  as 
Engel  calls  it,  though  the  interval  is  not  presented  directly 
to  the  eye  or  ear  because  of  the  absence  of  a  tone  which  is 
a  constituent  part  of  it — the  sixth.  It  is  the  baptismal 
hymn,  "Freely  Go"  (see  page  88),  which  makes  a  startling 
effect  with  its  unprepared  beginning  on  the  leading-tone. 
An  instance  of  the  creation  of  the  interval  by  the  raising 
of  the  fourth  is  found  in  the  extremely  interesting  song 
"Father  Abraham,"  in  the  arrangement  of  which  Mr. 
Burleigh  has  retained  the  effect  of  a  unique  choral  ac- 
companiment as  sung  at  the  Calhoun  school.  (See  page  90.) 
Notable,  too,  in  this  song  is  the  appreciation  of  tone- 

[     87    1 


AFRO-AMERICAN   FOLKSONGS 


Baptizing  Hymn 


Allegro  moderato 
alia  marcia 


inarch- ing"    a  -  long,  bown     in  -  to     the  wa     -       ter, 


Free  .  ly-   go^  marching a.long,Like   Zi.ons  sons  and  daugh.ters. 


[    88    1 


MINOR    VARIATIONS;    CHARACTERISTIC   RHYTHMS 


An  -  g-els  cry    out        Glo    -    ry!  Glo-ry   be   to   my  God     who 


From  Boyle  Co., Kentucky.  Collected  for  the  author  by  Miss  Mildred  J-  Hill,  of  Louisville; 
harmonized  by  Henry  Holden  Huss.  An  extraordinary  instance  of  a  feeling  for  the  scale  of 
Oriental  peoples,  with  its  augmented  second.  The  effect  of  this  interval  may  be  observed  by 
sounding  D-sharp,  C  and  B  at  the  beginning.  The  iaterval  of  the  sixth*  C»iss«daio«sl7  avoid- 
ed in  the  miAor  portion  of  the  melody. 


I    89    ] 


AFRO-AMERICAN   FOLKSONGS 


Father  Abraham 

"Tell  it" 


Andante 


'Way    up         on           de 

ir  r    r 

moun-tain  -   top; 

-m • p 

ir  r    r  p  p  1 

My  Lord     spoke  an'  de 

(^^      r F F fc: 

TeU    it,           teU   it, 

-F — F F 

teU    it,           tell    it, 

r    '      r   £^ 

tell    it,           teU    i«, 
>    f            t     t 

"T^t    EJ"jt   E,-^ 

r  LJ  jt  lJ- 

^  tJ^  Lr 

char- lot       stop,,  Sit. tin' down side-a    ob  de      ho -ly  Lamb;    Fa-ther 


c^ 

=^^"=f= 

A 

— 

r— K— i 

— rrMh 

r= 

=^ 

— i \ 

t 

^   F 

A  - 

br 

«J 

ak  -  ham. 

1          1          1 

si 

t  -tin'  do^ 

1 H 

(vti  side  -  a      ob     de 

i — i^  J — 1 

ho 

p4= 

■  ly 

-Hsi \ 

Lamb. 

— — B 

i 

^ 

=1 

— J 

: > 

N=^ 

¥ 

T 

=^ 

=^ 

■ 1 

,.            .1       II 

^ 

it^ 

3^ 

=*=* 

"Words  and  melody  from  "Calhonn  Plantation  Songs".  Collected  and  edited  by  Emily  Hal« 
loweU  (Boston,  C.  W.  Thompson  &  Co.).  Published  here  by  permission.  Arranged  by  H.T.  Bnr- 
leigh.  An  example  of  the  use  of  the  Oriental  interval  called  the  augmented,orsaperflaoassao> 

ond  (CJl-Bt;. 


[    90    1 


MINOR   VARIATIONS;   CHARACTERISTIC  RHYTHMS 

painting  exemplified  in  the  depiction  of  the  sojourn  on  the 
mountain-top  by  persistent  reiteration  of  the  highest  note 
reached  by  the  melody. 

I  have  no  disposition  to  indulge  in  speculations  touching 
the  origin  of  either  the  conventional  scales  or  the  departures 
from  them  which  I  have  pointed  out  in  these  songs.  There 
are  other  variations,  but  they  do  not  present  themselves 
in  sufficient  numbers  or  in  a  sufficiently  marked  manner 
to  justify  their  discussion  as  characteristic  of  the  music 
of  the  people  who  employed  them.  They  may  be  sporadic 
and  due  only  to  some  personal  equation  in  the  singer  who 
sang  them  to  the  collector.  In  no  case,  however,  do  they 
occur  in  songs  which  are  commonplace  in  structure  or 
sentiment.  I  should  like  to  say  that  the  melodies  which 
seem  to  be  based  on  the  Oriental  scale  prove  the  persistence 
in  the  Afro-American  folksongs  of  an  element,  or  idiom,  re- 
tained from  their  original  Eastern  home  or  derived  from 
intercourse  between  the  ancestors  of  the  black  slaves  and 
some  of  the  peoples  of  western  Asia  to  whom  the  scale  is 
native;  but  to  make  such  an  assertion  would  be  unscientific; 
we  lack  the  support  here  of  such  a  body  of  evidence  as  we 
have  to  prove  the  African  origin  of  the  aberrations  from  the 
major  scale  which  I  have  discussed.  Nevertheless,  it  is 
significant  in  my  eyes  that  the  few  songs  which  were 
gathered  for  me  by  Miss  Hill  in  Kentucky  and  the  songs 
collected  by  Miss  Hallowell  also  presented  themselves 
to  the  apprehension,  though  not  to  the  comprehension,  of 
the  collectors  of  the  "Slave  Songs  of  the  United  States." 
The  intermediate  collectors — those  who  made  the  Fisk 
and  Hampton  collections — having  a  more  popular  purpose 
in  view  were,  I  fear,  indifferent  to  their  value  and  beauty. 

It  is  a  pity  that  students  are  without  adequate  material 
from  which  the  natural  history  of  the  scales  might  be 
deduced — a  pity  and  a  wrong.  Governments  and  scien- 
tific societies  backed  by  beneficent  wealth  are  spending 
enormous  sums  in  making  shows  out  of  our  museums. 
For  these  shows  men  go  to  Africa  actuated  by  the  savage 
propensity  to  kill,  and  call  its  gratification  scientific  re- 
search.   Who  has  gone  to  Africa  to  capture  a  melody?    No 

[    91     ] 


AFRO-AMERICAN   FOLKSONGS 

one.  Yet  a  few  scores  or  hundreds  of  phonographic  records 
of  music  would  be  worth  more  to  science  and  art  to-day 
than  a  thousand  stuffed  skins  of  animals  robbed  of  life 
by  the  bullets  of  a  Roosevelt. 

It  is  unfortunate  that  musical  scholars  are  unable,  for 
want  of  material,  to  deduce  a  sound  theory  concerning 
the  origin  of  the  scale;  it  is  also  unfortunate  that  a  knowl- 
edge of  African  languages  and  dialects  does  not  come  to 
our  assistance  in  accounting  for  the  most  marked  rhyth- 
mical characteristic  of  the  songs  of  the  American  negroes. 
This  characteristic  is  found  in  the  use  of  a  figure  in  which 
the  emphasis  is  shifted  from  the  strong  to  the  weak  part 
of  a  time-unit  by  making  the  first  note  of  two  into  which 
the  beat  is  divided  take  only  a  fraction  of  the  time  of  the 
second.  This  effect  of  propulsion  when  frequently  repeated 
becomes  very  stirring,  not  to  say  exciting,  and,  as  has  been 
disclosed  by  the  development  of  "ragtime,"  leads  to  a 
sort  of  rhythmical  intoxication  exemplified  in  the  use  of 
the  device  not  only  in  the  first  beat  of  a  measure,  but  in  the 
other  beats  also,  and  even  in  the  fractional  divisions  of  a 
beat,  no  matter  how  small  they  have  been  made.  When 
this  species  of  syncopation,  known  as  the  Scotch,  or 
Scot's,  snap,  or  catch,  became  popular  in  the  Italian  opera 
airs  of  the  eighteenth  century  it  was  held  to  be  the  offspring 
of  a  device  commonly  found  in  the  popular  music  of 
Scotland.  It  is  a  characteristic  element  of  the  Strathspey 
reel,  and  the  belief  has  been  expressed  that  it  got  into 
vocal  music  from  the  fact  that  Burns  and  other  poets  wrote 
words  for  Scottish  dance-tunes.  "It  was  in  great  favor 
with  many  of  the  Italian  composers  of  the  eighteenth 
century,"  says  J.  Muir  Wood  (writing  in  Grove's  "Diction- 
ary of  Music  and  Musicians"),  "for  Burney,  who  seems  to 
have  invented  the  name,  says  in  his  account  of  the  Italian 
opera  in  London,  in  1748,  that  *there  was  at  this  time  too 
much  of  the  Scotch  catch,  or  cutting  short  of  the  first 
two  notes  in  a  melody.'  He  blames  Cocchi,  Perez  and 
Jommelli,  all  three  masters  concerned  in  the  opera  *V'olo- 
geso,'  for  being  lavish  of  the  snap."  Adding  to  his  article 
on  the  subject  in  the  second  edition  of  Grove's  work,  he 

[    92    ] 


MINOR    VARIATIONS;    CHARACTERISTIC   RHYTHMS 

says:  "In  the  hands  of  Hook  and  other  purveyors  of  the 
psuedo-Scottish  music  which  was  in  vogue  at  Vauxhall 
and  elsewhere  in  the  eighteenth  century,  it  became  a 
senseless  vulgarism,  and,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  songs 
.  .  .  and  the  Strathspey  reel,  in  which  it  is  an  essen- 
tial feature,  its  presence  may  generally  be  accepted  as 
proof  that  the  music  in  which  it  occurs  is  not  genuine.'' 

What  Wood  here  remarks  about  the  pseudo-Scotch 
music  of  the  eighteenth  century  as  it  was  cultivated  in  the 
music  halls  may  be  said  of  latter-day  "ragtime,"  which, 
especially  in  the  "turkey-trot"  and  "tango"  dances, 
monopolizes  the  music  almost  to  the  exclusion  of  melody 
and  harmony.  There  is  no  reason  why  drums  and  gongs 
should  not  give  these  dances  all  the  musical  impulse  they 
need.  Though  it  is  at  the  expense  of  a  digression,  it  is 
not  out  of  place  to  point  out  that  in  this  year  of  pretended 
refinement,  which  is  the  year  of  our  Lord  191 3,  the  dance 
which  is  threatening  to  force  grace,  decorum  and  decency 
out  of  the  ballrooms  of  America  and  England  is  a  survival 
of  African  savagery,  which  was  already  banished  from  the 
plantations  in  the  days  of  slavery.  It  was  in  the  dance 
that  the  bestiality  of  the  African  blacks  found  its  frankest 
expression.  The  Cuban  Habanera,  which  has  an  African 
rhythmical  foundation  (the  melodic  superstructure  having 
been  reared  by  the  white  natives  of  the  southern  countries 
of  America),  grew  into  the  most  graceful  and  most  polite 
of  the  Creole  dances.  Concerning  it  and  its  depraved 
ancestor,  the  tango,  Friedenthal  says  in  his  "Musik,  Tanz 
und  Dichtung  bei  den  Kreolen  Amerikas": 

But  the  habanera  is  not  only  danced  by  the  cultivated  Creoles,  but  also 
by  preference  in  the  West  Indies  by  the  colored  plebs.  In  such  cases  not  a 
trace  of  grace  is  longer  to  be  found;  on  the  contrary,  the  movements  of  the 
dances  leave  nothing  to  be  desired  in  the  line  of  unequivocal  obscenity.  It 
is  this  vulgar  dance,  popularly  called  tango  (after  an  African  word  "tangana"), 
which  sought  vainly  to  gain  admission  to  our  salons  under  the  title  of  "tango 
argentino,"  by  way  of  Argentina.  It  was  shown  to  the  lower  classes  of  Ar- 
gentina last  year — the  jubilee  year  of  the  republic.  To  the  honor  of  the  great 
country  on  the  Silver  River  it  may  be  said  at  once  that  there  the  habanera 
is  never  danced  except  in  the  most  decent  form.  It  is  indubitable,  however, 
that  the  Cuban  tango  was  the  original  product  and  the  danza-habanera  its 
refined  copy  prepared  for  cultured  circles,  the  Creoles  having  borrowed  not 
only  the  rhythms  but  also  the  choregraphic  movements  of  the  dances  from 
the  Africans. 

r  93  1 


AFRO-AMERICAN   FOLKSONGS 

It  can  scarcely  be  set  down  to  the  credit  of  American 
and  English  women  that  in  adopting  the  tango  they  are 
imitating  the  example,  not  of  the  ladies  of  Argentina,  but 
of  the  women  of  the  Black  Republic.    Friedenthal  says : 

The  Haytian  salon  dance,  Meringue,  is  identical  with  the  danza  of  the 
Spanish  islands;  but  there  is  this  difference,  that  even  in  the  higher  circles 
of  Port-au-Prince,  in  which  decorum  and  tact  prevail  and  where  the  young, 
light  colored  women  are  of  fascinating  amiability,  the  gestures  of  the  dance  are 
never  so  unobjectionable  as  is  the  case  with  the  Spanish  Creoles;  from  which 
it  is  to  be  seen  that  the  dance,  consciously  or  unconsciously,  has  a  different 
purpose  among  these  peoples.  All  the  more  undisguised  is  the  crude  sensuality 
among  the  lower  classes  of  the  Haytian  population.  Here  every  motion  is 
obscene;  and  I  am  not  at  all  considering  the  popular  merrymakings  or  dance 
festivals  secretly  held  partly  in  the  open,  partly  in  the  forests,  which  are 
more  like  orgies,  in  which  the  African  savagery,  which  has  outlived  centuries, 
has  unbridled  expression. 

The  rhythmical  device  under  discussion  is  also  found 
in  the  popular  music  of  Hungary,  where  it  is  called  alia 
zoppa  (limping).  Here  it  is  unquestionably  the  product 
of  poetry.  Dr.  Aurel  Wachtel,  discussing  the  music  of  the 
Magyars^ — says  that  the  rhythmical  construction  of  their 
ballads  is  most  closely  allied  to  the  peculiarity  of  the  Magyar 
language,  which  distinguishes  the  short  and  long  syl- 
lables much  more  sharply  than  any  other  language  spoken 
by  the  peoples  of  Germanic-Slavic-Romanic  origin.  The 
character  of  the  Magyar  tongue  does  not  tolerate  that 
prosodically  long  syllables  in  song  shall  be  used  as  short, 
or  vice  versa. 

Now,  whether  the  rhythms  of  dance-music  be  derived 
from  the  songs  which  gave  time  to  the  feet  of  the  original 
dancers,  or  the  rhythms  of  poetry  were  borrowed  from 
the  steps  of  the  dance,  it  would  seem  as  if  the  determining 
factor  was  the  word.  The  most  primitive  music  was  vocal. 
Poetical  song  had  its  origin  in  improvization,  and  impro- 
vization  would  be  clogged  unless  musical  and  verbal 
rhythm  could  flow  together.  The  rhythmical  snap  of  the 
American  negroes  is  in  all  likelihood  an  aboriginal  relic, 
an  idiom  which  had  taken  so  powerful  a  hold  on  them  that 
they  carried  it  over  into  their  new  environment,  just  as 
they  did  the  melodic  peculiarities  which  I  have  investigated. 
It  was  so  powerful  an  impulse,  indeed,  that  it  broke  down 

»  "Musikalisches  Wochenblatt,"  July  5,  1878. 

f      94      1 


MINOR    VARIATIONS;   CHARACTERISTIC   RHYTHMS 

the  barriers  interposed  by  the  new  language  which  they 
were  compelled  to  adopt  in  their  new  home.  For  the 
sake  of  the  snap  the  creators  of  the  folksongs  of  the  Ameri- 
can negroes  did  not  hesitate  to  distort  the  metrical  structure 
of  their  lines.  In  scores  upon  scores  of  instances  trochees 
like  "Moses,"  "Satan,"  "mother,"  "brother,"  "sister," 
and  so  forth,  become  iambs,  while  dactyls  become  amphi- 
brachys, like  "No^o^y,"  "No^o^y  knows"  (see  page  96), 
"These  are  my,"  "No  one  can,"  etc.  A  glance  into  any 
one  of  the  collections  mentioned  will  furnish  examples  by 
the  score.  Of  the  527  songs  examined,  315  contain  the 
rhythmical  snap  which  is  as  well  entitled  to  be  called 
African  as  Scottish. 

"Another  noticeable  feature  of  the  songs,"  says  Theo- 
dore F.  Seward  in  his  preface  to  the  Fisk  Jubilee  collection, 
"is  the  rare  occurence  of  triple  time,  or  three-part  measure, 
among  them.  The  reason  for  this  is  doubtless  to  be 
found  in  the  beating  of  the  foot  and  the  swaying  of  the 
body,  which  are  such  frequent  accompaniments  of  the 
singing.  These  motions  are  in  even  measure  and  in  per- 
fect time;  and  so  it  will  be  found  that  however  broken  and 
seemingly  irregular  the  movement  of  the  music,  it  is 
always  capable  of  the  most  exact  measurement." 

Triple  time  is,  indeed,  of  extremely  rare  occurence  in  the 
melodies;  taking  as  a  standard  the  collection  to  which  my 
observations  have  been  directed,  less  than  one-tenth  of  the 
tunes  are  in  simple  and  compound  triple  time.  The  regular 
swaying  of  the  body  to  which  Mr.  Seward  refers  might 
better  be  described  as  an  effect  than  as  a  cause  of  the  even 
movement  of  the  music.  It  is  no  doubt  an  inherited  pre- 
dilection, a  survival  of  a  primitive  march-rhythm  which, 
in  the  nature  of  the  case,  lies  at  the  bottom  of  the  first 
communal  movements  of  primitive  peoples;  uneven  meas- 
ure is  more  naturally  associated  with  a  revolving  movement, 
of  which  I  find  no  mention  in  the  notes  of  my  African 
reading.  The  "shout"  of  the  slaves,  as  we  have  seen, 
was  a  march — circular  only  because  that  is  the  only  kind 
of  march  which  will  not  carry  the  dancers  away  from  the 
gathering-place.     Pantomimic  dances,  like  those  which  I 

[  95   ] 


AFRO-AMERICAN   FOLKSONGS 


Nobody  Knows  the  Trouble  I  See 

Plaintively 

Nobody  knows  the  trouble  I  se€,Lord,  Nobody  knows  the 


trouble    I    see;     Nobody  knows  the  trouble  I    see,Lord,  Nobody  knows  but 


Je.sus.  Brother^will  you   pray  forme,    Brothers,  will  you  pray  for  me, 


Brothers, will  you   pray  for  me,  And  help  me  to  drive  old     Satan  a-way? 

D.  C.  at  Fine 


•  Ofl  r«p6tition,*'Siaters7"Mother^,"Preachers?  •  y;^ 

Words  and  melody  from  "The  Story  of  the  Jubilee  Siagers  with  their  Songs"  by  J.  B-T.Marsb. 

Arrangement  by  the  Authoi; 


96 


MINOR  VARIATIONS;   CHARACTERISTIC   RHYTHMS 

witnessed  in  the  Dahoman  village  at  the  Columbian  Exhi- 
bition, in  1 893, are  generally  martial  and  consist  of  advances 
and  retreats  in  linear  formation  with  descriptive  gestures. 

The  innate  rhythmical  capacity  of  the  Africans  has 
been  sufficiently  dwelt  upon.  In  the  American  songs  it 
finds  its  expression  in  the  skill  with  which  the  negroes 
constrain  their  poetry  to  accept  the  rhythms  of  the  music. 
Two  authors,  the  Rev.  J.  Richardson  and  the  Rev.  James 
Sibree,  jr.  (the  former  of  whom  wrote  on  the  hymnology 
of  the  Malagasy,  the  latter  on  their  children's  games  and 
songs),  agree  (assuming  that  Wallaschek  has  quoted  them 
correctly)  in  the  statement  that  the  poetry  of  the  natives 
of  Madagascar  is  not  rhythmical,  though  their  music  is. 
Mr.  Allen  writes,  in  his  preface  to  the  "Slave  Songs": 
*'The  negroes  keep  exquisite  time  in  singing,  and  do  not 
suffer  themselves  to  be  daunted  by  any  obstacle  in  the 
words.  The  most  obstinate  scripture  phrases  or  snatches 
from  hymns  they  will  force  to  do  duty  with  any  tune  they 
please,  and  will  dash  heroically  through  a  trochaic  tune 
at  the  head  of  a  column  of  iambs  with  wonderful  skill." 
A  glance  into  any  collection  of  Afro-American  songs  will 
provide  examples  of  Mr.  Allen's  meaning;  but  if  the  reader 
wishes  to  see  how  an  irregular  line  can  be  made  to  evolve  a 
characteristically  rhythmic  musical  phrase  he  need  but  look 
in  "O'er  the  Crossing"  (pages  98-99),  at  the  line  "Keep 
praying!  I  do  believe."  Despite  its  rudeness,  this  song, 
because  of  its  vivid  imagery,  comes  pretty  near  to  being 
poetry  of  the  genuine  type.  To  learn  what  word  it  was 
that  in  the  process  of  oral  transmission  became  corrupted 
into  "waggin'  "  I  have  hunted  and  pondered  in  vain.  Per- 
haps "We're  a  long  time  waggin'  at  the  crossin'  "  was 
originally  "We're  a  long  time  lagging  at  the  crossing." 
Perhaps  the  word  was  once  "waggoning."  In  the  song 
"My  body  rock  'long  fever,"^  is  a  line,  "Better  true  be  long 
time  get  over  crosses,"  which  may  have  reflected  a  similar 
idea,  though  it  is  all  vague  now.  In  "I've  been  toilin' 
at  de  hill  so  long"  of  the  Hampton  collection  there  seems 
to  be  another  parallel;  but  the  song  is  very  inferior. 

1  "Slave  Songs,"  No.  45. 

[    97    ] 


AFRO-AMERICAN  FOLKSONGS 


O  er  the  Crossing 


Andante 


1.  Bend  -    in'        knees  a      •      ach  >    in', 


child     of      God,        I'd       g'it   home      time      •         by, 


Keep 


[  98    1 


MINOR    VARIATIONS;   CHARACTERISTIC   RHYTHMS 


€l£CT89C 


pray.in',    I  do  believe  Were  a    long- time  wag-girf  o*   de    cross4n'.       Keep 


pray. in',    I   do  be-lieve We'll  git   home,  to  hearexi    bime  -  by. 


O  yonder's  my  old  madder, 
Been  a-wag-g-in'  at  the  hill  so  longf; 

It's  about  time  she  cross  over, 
Git  home  bime-by. 
Keep  prayin*,  I  do  believe,  etc. 


3.  O  hear  dat  lumberio^  thunder 
A-roll  from  do'  to  do', 
A  callin'  de  people  home  to  God; 
Dey'll  git  home  bime-by. 
Little  chil'n,  I  do  believe*  etc. 


4.  O  see  dat  forked  lightnin' 

A- jump  from  cloud  to  cloud, 
A-pickin'  up  God's  chil'n; 
Dey'll  git  home  bime-by. 
Pray,  mourner,  I  do  believe,  etc 

Words  and  melody  from"Slave  bongs  of  the  United  States";  arranged  for  the  aathor  by  Ax. 
thor  If ees.  The  following  note  on  the  song  appears  in  the  collection  from  which  it  was  takaa: 
"This'infinitely  qaaint  description  of  the  length  of  the  heavenly  road',  as  CoL  Higginson  styles 
it,  is  one  of  the  most  peculiar  and  wide,  spread  of  the  spirituals.  It  was  sung  as  gives  abcivv 
in  Caroline  Co.,  Virginia,  and  probably  spread  southward  from  this  state  variously  modified 
is  different  localities." 


I  y9  J 


CHAPTER  VIII 

STRUCTURAL     FEATURES    OF    THE 
POEMS-FUNERAL  MUSIC 


Improvization — Solo  and  Choral  Refrain — Examples 

FROM  Africa — Strange  Funeral  Customs — Their 

Savage  Prototypes — Messages  to  the  Dead — 

Graveyard     Songs     of    the    American 

Slaves 


The  general  structure  of  the  simpler  (and  therefore 
older)  American  songs  shows  a  stanza  containing  an  al- 
ternating solo  verse  and  refrain,  with  sometimes  a  chorus. 
"The  most  common  arrangement,"  say  the  editors  of 
"Slave  Songs,"  in  their  directions  for  singing,  "gives  the 
second  and  fourth  lines  to  the  refrain  and  the  first  and  third 
to  the  verse;  and  in  this  case  the  third  line  may  be  a 
repetition  of  the  first  or  may  have  different  words.  Often, 
however,  the  refrain  occupies  only  one  line,  the  verse 
occupying  the  other  three,  while  in  one  or  two  songs  the 
verse  is  only  one  line,  while  the  refrain  is  three  lines  in 
length.  The  refrain  is  repeated  with  each  stanza;  the 
words  of  the  verse  are  changed  at  the  pleasure  of  the 
leader,  or  fugleman,  who  sings  either  well-known  words, 
or,  if  he  is  gifted  that  way,  invents  verses  as  the  song  goes 
on.  In  addition  to  the  stanza,  some  of  the  songs  have  a 
chorus,  which  usually  consists  of  a  fixed  set  of  words, 
though  in  some  of  the  songs  the  chorus  is  a  good  deal 
varied.  The  refrain  of  the  main  stanza  often  appears  in 
the  chorus." 

There  is  nothing  peculiar  to  these  American  folksongs 
in  this  recurrent  refrain,  but  it  is  worth  noticing  that  the 
feature  in  the  form  of  an  alternating  line  of  improvization 
and  a  reiterated  burden  is  found  throughout  Africa.  "Their 
style  is  the  recitative  broken  by  a  full  chorus,"  says  Sir 
Richard  Burton,  speaking  of  the  people  of  the  lake  region 

I  100] 


STRUCTURE  OF  THE  POEMS;  FUNERAL  MUSIC 

of  Central  Africa.  Carl  Mauch,  in  his  "Reisen  in  Siid- 
Afrika"  says  of  the  music  of  the  Makalaka  that  it  usually 
consists  of  a  phrase  of  eight  measures,  repeated  ad  infinitum, 
to  which  are  sung  improvized  verses  with  a  refrain.  Walla- 
schek  cites  Eduard  Mohr^  as  saying  that  the  Damaras 
rarely  dance,  in  fact,  only  on  extraordinary  occasions;  and 
they  sing  together  just  as  rarely,  although  fond  of  solo 
singing,  the  words  for  which  they  extemporize,  while  the 
refrains  are  taken  up  by  a  chorus.  Wallaschek  also  says 
(page  4),  "The  Balatpi  reminded  Weber^  of  Venetian  gon- 
doliers or  of  the  lazzaroni  in  Naples.  One  would  improvise  a 
stanza  which  others  would  immediately  sing  in  chorus  to  a 
charming  melody.  Each  in  turn  improvises  thus,  so  that 
all  have  an  opportunity  of  exhibiting  their  talents  for 
poetry  and  wit.  The  fact  that  all  words  ended  in  a  vowel 
sound  simplified  the  extemporization  of  verses,  which  are 
not  invariably  accurate  as  regards  rhythm.  The  general 
singing  of  these  stanzas  seemed  to  afford  the  greatest 
amusement  to  the  singers  as  they  sat  in  a  circle  around 
the  campfire."  In  "Across  Africa,"  by  Verney  Lovett 
Cameron,  C.  B.,  D.  C.  L.,'  we  read  this  of  the  fortune- 
telling  by  a  fetich  man:  "On  arrival  he  seated  himself  on 
the  ground,  surrounded  by  his  friends,  and  then  commenced 
a  monotonous  recitative.  In  this  he  accompanied  himself 
by  shaking  a  rattle  made  of  basketwork  shaped  like  a 
dumbbell,  while  the  circle  of  attendants  joined  in  a  chorus, 
sometimes  striking  their  bells  and  at  others  laying  them 
down  and  clapping  their  hands  in  a  kind  of  rhythmic 
cadence." 

Speaking  of  the  Zulu-Kafirs,  the  Rev.  Louis  Grout  says 
in  Chapter  XIV  of  his  book  "Zulu-Land;  or,  Life  Among 
the  Zulu-Kafirs  of  Natal  and  Zulu-Land":* 

The  most  of  their  songs  consist  of  only  a  few  words,  which  they  repeat 
over  and  over  again  with  such  variations  as  their  national  taste  and  habit 
or  individual  fancy  may  dictate.  ,  .  .  Their  songs  often  have  a  special 
fitness  for  the  occasion,  as  when  a  man  in  search  of  a  cow  goes  humming: 

1  "Nach  den  Victoriafallen  des  Zambesi,"  I,  160. 

2  Ernst  von  Weber,  *'Vier  Jahre  in  Afrika,"  I,  221. 
»  New  York,  Harpers,  1877. 

*  Philadelphia:  The  Presbyterian  Publication  Compaay,  1864. 

[101] 


That  is: 


AFRO-AMERICAN   FOLKSONGS 

"JIfa  1  u  inkomo  yetUy  si  ya  yi  biza; 

Si  ti,  ma  i  le^  ma  i  z^ka; 

Ma  i  ze  kumi,  ma  i  zeke; 
Ma  i  ze  inkomo  yetu,  si  ya  yi  biza.''* 


"Our  cow,  let  her  come,  we  are  calling  her; 

We  say,  let  her  come,  let  her  come,  so  let  her  come; 

Let  her  come  to  me,  then  let  her  come; 

Our  cow,  let  her  come,  we  are  calling  her." 

Several  natives  spent  a  rainy  day  hard  at  work  digging  out  and  killing 
three  or  four  porcupines  which  had  made  them  trouble  in  their  gardens; 
and  the  next  morning  one  of  them  passed  my  door  singing  the  following  song, 
which  I  was  told  he  indited  for  the  occasion: 

"Truly,  oh,  truly,  they'll  perish  anon. 

The  land  of  the  Zulu  so  slyly  they  leave. 
All  the  people,  they  come,  they  come. 

The  land  of  the  Zulu  so  slyly  they  leave. 
Truly,  oh,  truly,"  etc. 

From  Denham  and  Clapperton's  "Narrative  of  Travels 
in  Northern  and  Central  Africa,"^  Carl  Engel  quotes  the 
following  extemporaneous  song  of  negro  bards  in  Bornou 
in  praise  of  their  Sultan: 

Give  flesh  to  the  hyenas  at  daybreak — 

Oh,  the  broad  spears! 
The  spear  of  the  Sultan  is  the  broadest — 

Oh,  the  broad  spears! 
I  behold  thee  now — I  desire  to  see  none  other — 

Oh,  the  broad  spears! 
My  horse  is  as  tall  as  a  high  wall — 

Oh,  the  broad  spears! 
He  will  fight  against  ten — he  fears  nothing! 

Oh,  the  broad  spears! 
He  has  slain  ten;  the  guns  are  yet  behind — 

Oh,  the  broad  spears! 
The  elephant  of  the  forest  brings  me  what  I  want — 

Oh,  the  broad  spears! 
Like  unto  thee,  so  is  the  Sultan — 

Oh,  the  broad  spears! 
Be  brave!     Be  brave,  my  friends  and  kinsmen — 

Oh,  the  broad  spears! 
God  is  great!    I  wax  fierce  as  a  beast  of  prey — 

Oh,  the  broad  spears! 
God  is  great!    To-day  those  I  wished  for  are  come — 

Oh,  the  broad  spears! 

It  would  be  an  easy  matter  to  multiply  parallels  of  this 
song  in  the  matter  of  form  from  among  the  religious  songs 
of  the  American  negroes.     Let  two  suffice: 

I  want  to  be  my  fader's  chil'en — 

Roll,  Jordan,  roll! 
O  say,  ain't  you  done  wid  de  trouble  ob  de  world? 

Roll,  Jordan,  roll! 

»  London,  1826,  H,  19. 

[   102  ] 


STRUCTURE  OF  THE  POEMS;  FUNERAL  MUSIC 

I  ask  de  Lord  how  long  I  hold  *em — 

Roll,  Jordan,  roll! 
My  sins  so  heavy  I  can't  get  along.    Ah! 

Roll,  Jordan,  roll! 
I  cast  my  sins  in  de  middle  ob  de  sea — 

Roll,  Jordan,  roll! 

Here  the  second: 

Hurry  on,  my  weary  soul — 

And  I  yearde  from  heaven  to-day! 
My  sin  is  forgiven  and  my  soul  set  free — 

And  I  yearde  from  heaven  to-day! 
A  baby  born  in  Bethlehem — 

And  I  yearde  from  heaven  to-day! 
De  trumpet  sound  in  de  odder  bright  land — 

And  I  yearde  from  heaven  to-day! 
My  name  is  called  and  I  must  go — 

And  I  yearde  from  heaven  to-day! 
De  bell  is  a-ringin'  in  de  odder  bright  world — 

And  I  yearde  from  heaven  to-day! 

Relics  of  ancient  ceremonies  connected  with  death  and 
burial  have  survived  amongst  the  American  negroes  and 
have  been  influential  in  producing  some  strangely  beautiful 
and  impressive  songs.  One  of  these,  "Dig  My  Grave" 
(see  page  104),  from  the  Bahamas,  where  the  songs,  though 
they  have  much  community  of  both  poetical  and  musical 
phrase  with  them,  yet  show  a  higher  development  than 
do  the  slave  songs  of  the  States,  is  peculiarly  impressive. 
The  first  period  of  its  melody — it  might  be  called  tripartite 
— is  fairly  Schumannesque  in  breadth  and  dignity.  An- 
other, "I  Look  o'er  Yander  (see  page  105),  is  not  com- 
parable with  it  from  a  musical  point  of  view,  but  derives 
peculiar  interest  from  the  ceremony  with  which  it  is 
associated.  This  function  is  one  of  those  which  I  call 
a  relic  of  ancient  ceremonies,  because,  like  the  peculiar 
idioms  of  the  melodies,  it  cannot  have  been  copied  from 
any  of  the  funeral  rites  which  the  slaves  saw  among  their 
white  masters,  but  does  show  afhnity  with  Old  World 
and  oldtime  ceremonies. 

Like  the  ancient  Romans,  the  slaves  were  in  the  habit 
of  burying  their  dead  at  night.  Like  their  savage  ancestors 
in  Africa,  they  expressed  their  sorrow  in  nocturnal  song. 
It  is  remotely  possible,  too,  that  once  they  indulged  in 
funeral  dances,  even  in  such  wild  orgies  as  travellers  have 
described.     These  dances,  like  most  others,  have  passed 

[  103  ] 


AFRO-AMERICAN   FOLKSONGS 


Largo 


Dig  My  Grave 


Dig-  my  grave       long"   an'   nar-  row,   Make    my        cof  -    fin 


long  an'  strong.Brigiit  an-gelstomy  feet,  Bright   an-gelsto  myhead,Brigiit 


angels  to  car- ry  me    when  Im  dead.         Oh  mi  lit-tlesoiUgoin'  shine,  shine^ 
(I      die). 


Words  and  melody  from  "Bahama  Songs  and  Stories"  t>y  Charles. L.Edwards,  Ph.  D.,  pub- 
lished for  the  American  Folk-Lore  Society  by  Houghton,  Mifflis  A  Co.,  Bostoo,  and  reprint- 
ed by  permissioo.  The  Arrasgeneat  made  (or  this  book  by  H.  T-  Borleigh. 


104  ] 


STRUCTURE   OF    THE  POEMS;  FUNERAL  MUSIC 


I  Look  o*er  Yander 

(Bahama) 


Adagio 


I        look  o'er  yan-der,what    I    see?  SomeJ)odys  dy-  ing    ev  .  'ry  day. 
See  bright  an- gel  stand-in' derej  Some-body's  dy.ing"    ev-'ryday. 


Ev  -  'ry  day,      pass- in'  a  .  vay,     Somebod-y*s  dy    -    ing"     «▼  •  'ry  day. 


An  "anthem"  which  is  stingy  in  the  Bahamas  at  a  "settin*  op",  a  sort  of  ail-ni^ht  watch  is  as4 
aroand  the  hot  of  a  dyio^  person.  Words  and  melody  from  "Bahama  Songs  and  Stories",  by 
Charles  L.  Edwards,  Ph:  D..  pablished  for  the  American  Polk  Lore  Society  by  Ho«chton,Mir- 
Bin8c  Co.  and  reprinted  by  peraissioa.  The  arrangement  made  for  this  vorli  by  B.  T.  Barlci^. 


[lOS] 


AFRO-AMERICAN  FOLKSONGS 

away  in  communities  in  which  Protestant  influences  were 
dominant,  especially  where  the  teachings  of  the  Methodists 
and  Baptists  took  strongest  hold.  There  the  "shout" 
provided  vent  for  the  emotions  to  which  their  ancestors 
gave  expression  in  mad  and  lascivious  dancing. 

Paul  B.  du  Chaillu^  describes  a  nocturnal  funeral  chant 
whose  wailing  seemed  burdened  with  a  sense  of  absolute 
hopelessness  and  whose  words  ran  thus: 

Oh,  you  will  never  speak  to  us  any  more, 
We  can  not  see  your  face  any  more, 
You  will  never  walk  with  us  again, 
You  will  never  settle  our  palavers  for  us. 

Edwards,  in  his  history  of  the  West  Indies,^  says  of  the 
slaves  in  those  islands: 

At  other  times,  more  especially  at  the  burial  of  such  among  them  as  were 
respected  in  life  or  venerable  through  age,  they  exhibit  a  sort  of  Pyrrhick  or 
war-like  dance,  in  which  their  bodies  are  strongly  agitated  by  running,  leaping 
and  jumping,  with  many  violent  and  frantick  gestures  and  contortions.  Their 
funeral  songs,  too,  are  all  of  the  heroick  or  martial  cast,  affording  some  colour 
to  the  prevalent  notion  that  the  negroes  consider  death  not  only  as  a  welcome 
and  happy  release  from  the  calamities  of  their  condition,  but  also  as  a  passport 
to  the  place  of  their  nativity;  a  deliverance  which,  while  it  frees  them  from 
bondage,  returns  them  to  the  society  of  their  dearest,  long  lost  and  lamented 
relatives  in  Africa. 

From  the  description  by  Francisco  Travassos  Valdez,' 
it  appears  that  in  Loanda,  Lower  Guinea,  when  a  death 
occurs  the  friends  of  the  dead  person  not  only  sing  and 
dance  at  the  funeral,  but  repeat  the  rites  at  intervals  of  a 
week  and  a  month.  In  the  songs  the  good  deeds  of  the 
departed  are  celebrated  and  his  virtues  extolled.  The 
eulogies  are  interrupted  at  intervals  by  one  of  the  mourners 
exclaiming,  "He  is  dead!"  whereupon  all  the  others  reply 
in  chorus,  "Woe  is  me!" 

In  some  sections  of  Africa  the  period  of  mourning  is,  or 
was,  a  period  of  cessation  from  musical  performances;  in 

*  The  song  is  quoted  by  Prof.  Edwards  from  Du  Chaillu's  "Explorations 
and  Adventures  in  Equatorial  Africa,"  and  Prof.  Edwards  refers  for  similar 
examples  to  Major  A.  G.  Laing's  "Travels  in  Western  Africa,"  London,  1825, 
pp.  233  and  237;  Theodor  Waltz's  "Anthropologie  der  Naturvolker,"  Leipsic, 
1860,  II,  pp.  240  and  243;  and  K.  Endemann's  "Mittheilungen  iiber  die 
Sotho-Neger,"  Berlin,  1874,  pp.  57,  63. 

'  "The  History,  Civil  and  Commercial,  of  the  British  Colonies  in  the  West 
Indies,"  by  Bryan  Edwards,  Esq.,  F.  R.  S.,  S.  A.,  Vol.  II,  p.  103. 

*  "Six  Years  of  a  Traveller's  Life  in  Western  Africa,"  London,  1861,  cited 
by  Engel. 

[  106] 


STRUCTURE   OF  THE   POEMS;  FUNERAL  MUSIC 

others  death  and  burial  were  accompanied  by  noisy 
lamentations. 

The  Abbe  Proyart,  in  his  "History  of  Loango,  Kakongo 
and  Other  Kingdoms  of  Africa,"^  tells  of  a  custom,  when 
a  native  is  sick,  of  summoning,  with  the  physician,  a  band 
of  musicians,  who  assemble  around  his  house  and  play 
on  instruments  incessantly  day  and  night,  presumably  till 
the  patient  is  recovered  or  dead.  It  is  not  unHkely  that  in 
this  custom  (which,  in  a  way,  suggests  the  practices  of  the 
shamans  of  the  North  American  Indians)  is  to  be  found 
the  origin  of  the  singular  custom  of  "settin*  up,''  which  is 
described  by  Professor  Charles  L.  Edwards  in  his  "Bahama 
Songs  and  Stories."  This  nocturnal  song-service,  which 
Jenny  Woodville  described  as  a  feature  of  slave  life  in  the 
Southern  States,^  is  held  when  a  negro  is  supposed  to  be 
dying.  "The  singers,  men,  women  and  children  of  all 
ages,"  says  Professor  Edwards,  "sit  about  on  the  floor 
of  the  larger  room  of  the  hut  and  stand  outside  at  the 
doors  and  windows,  while  the  invalid  lies  upon  the  floor 
in  the  smaller  room.  Long  into  the  night  they  sing  their 
most  mournful  hymns  and  'anthems,'  and  only  in  the  light 
of  dawn  do  those  who  are  left  as  chief  mourners  silently 
disperse." 

The  "anthem"  which  is  most  often  used  on  these  occa- 
sions is  "I  Look  o'er  Yander."  A  notable  thing  about  it 
is  that  it  is  one  of  the  rare  examples  of  a  negro  melody 
in  three-part  measure  (compound);  but  there  is  no  sug- 
gestion of  a  lightsome  mood  on  that  account  in  the  melody. 
"With  all  the  sad  intonation  accented  by  the  tense  emo- 
tion of  the  singers,"  says  Professor  Edwards,  "it  sounds 
in  the  distance  as  though  it  might  well  be  the  death  tri- 
umph of  some  old  African  chief: 

Each  one  of  the  dusky  group,  as  if  by  intuition,  takes  some  part  in  the 
melody,  and  the  blending  of  all  tone-colors  in  the  soprano,  tenor,  alto  and 
bass,  without  reference  to  the  fixed  laws  of  harmony,  makes  such  peculiarly 
touching  music  as  I  have  never  heard  elsewhere.  As  this  song  of  consolation  ac- 
companies the  sighs  of  the  dying  one,  it  seems  to  be  taken  up  by  the  mournful 
rustle  of  the  palm  and  to  be  lost  only  in  the  undertone  of  murmur  from  the 
distant  coral  reef.    It  is  all  weird  and  intensely  sad. 

^  In  the  Pinkert  Collection. 

'  "Lippincott's  Magazine"  for  November,  1878. 

[  107  1 


AFRO-AMERICAN    FOLKSONGS 

Closely  related  to  this  custom  of  "settin'  up"  apparently 
is  one  to  which  Mrs.  Jeannette  Robinson  Murphy  called 
attention  in  an  interesting  article,  accompanied  by  songs 
and  stories,  which  she  published  some  years  ago  in  *'The 
Independent."  In  this  custom  the  hymns  which  are  sung 
at  the  deathbed  become  messages  to  loved  ones  gone 
before,  which  the  departing  soul  is  charged  tobear  to  heaven. 
"When  a  woman  dies,"  wrote  Mrs.  Murphy,  "some  friend 
or  relative  will  kneel  down  and  sing  to  the  soul  as  it 
takes  its  flight.  One  of  the  songs  contains  endless  verses, 
conveying  remembrances  to  relatives  in  glory."  Here, 
surely,  is  a  lovely  and  truly  exalted  variant  of  the  primitive 
custom  of  placing  coins  in  the  mouths  of  the  dead  to  pay 
the  Stygian  ferryman,  or  slaughtering  dogs,  horses  and 
slaves  for  a  chief's  companionship  on  the  journey  into 
the  next  world. 

And  yet  even  this  affecting  ceremony  may  have  had 
its  origin  in  the  awful  practice  which  prevails  in  Dahomey, 
to  which  every  year  a  large  number  of  lives  are,  or  used 
to  be,  sacrificed.  On  the  death  of  a  Dahoman  king  the 
"grand  custom,"  as  it  is  called,  is  celebrated,  at  which  at 
times  as  many  as  five  hundred  captives  have  been  slain 
to  make  up  the  household  of  the  departed  monarch  in  the 
other  world.  Besides  this  sacrifice  there  is  an  annual  one 
at  which  from  sixty  to  eighty  are  killed  and  sent  as  bearers 
of  messages  and  news  from  the  new  king  to  his  predecessor. 
Into  the  ear  of  each  unfortunate  the  king  whispers  the 
words  which  he  wishes  to  have  reported,  whereupon  the 
executioner  immediately  strikes  off  the  ghostly  postman's 
mortal  head. 

Much  more  singular  than  this  singing  to  the  soul,  is  a 
custom  which  is  said  to  have  prevailed  in  South  Carolina, 
where,  on  the  death  of  the  father  of  a  family,  his  relatives, 
assembled  around  the  coffin,  ranged  in  order  of  age  and 
relationship,  sang  the  following  hymn  while  marching 
around  the  body: 

Dese  all  my  fader's  children. 

Outshine  de  sun! 
My  fader's  done  wid  de  trouble  o'  de  world — 

Outshine  de  sun! 

[  108  ] 


STRUCTURE  OF  THE  POEMS;  FUNERAL  MUSIC 

The  youngest  child  was  then  taken  and  passed  first 
over,  then  under  the  coffin,  whereupon  two  men  took  it 
on  their  shoulders  and  carried  it  to  the  grave  "on  the  run,^^^ 

Among  the  songs  which  Colonel  Higginson  imprisoned 
in  his  notebook — writing  it  down,  perhaps,  in  the  darkness, 
with  his  hand,  as  he  says,  in  the  covert  of  his  pocket,  as 
he  overheard  it  from  dusky  figures  moving  in  "the  rhyth- 
mical barbaric  chant  called  a  *shout'  "  beside  the  campfire, 
then  carrying  it  to  his  tent  "like  a  captured  bird  or  insect" 
— was  a  nocturnal  funeral  song  which  surprised  him  most 
because  its  images  were  furnished  directly  by  external 
nature.  "With  all  my  experience  of  their  ideal  ways  of 
speech,"  he  says,  "I  was  startled  when  first  I  came  on  such 
a  flower  of  poetry  in  the  dark  soil." 

I  know  moonlight,  I  know  starlight; 

I  lay  dis  body  down. 
I  walk  in  de  moonlight,  I  walk  in  de  starlight; 

I  lay  dis  body  down. 
I  know  de  graveyard,  I  know  de  graveyard. 

When  I  lay  dis  body  down. 
I  walk  in  de  graveyard,  I  walk  troo  de  graveyard 

To  lay  dis  body  down. 
I  lay  in  de  grave  and  stretch  out  my  arms; 

I  lay  dis  body  down. 
I  go  to  de  judgment  in  de  evenin'  of  de  day 

When  I  lay  dis  body  down. 
An'  my  soul  an'  your  soul  will  meet  in  de  day 

When  we  lay  dis  body  down. 

And  Colonel  Higginson  comments:  "  Til  lie  in  de  grave 
and  stretch  out  my  arms.'  Never,  it  seems  to  me,  since 
man  first  lived  and  suffered,  was  his  infinite  longing  for 
peace  uttered  more  plaintively  than  in  that  line."  The 
phrase  of  melody  which  the  editors  of  "Slave  Songs"  ap- 
pended to  Colonel  Higginson's  words  is  altogether  too 
banal  to  be  accepted  as  the  one  to  which  a  poem  bearing 
such  a  burden  of  pathos  could  possibly  have  been  sung. 
The  music  is  much  more  likely  to  have  been  something 
like  that  of  "O  Graveyard"  (see  page  no),  which  I  have 
included  in  my  list — the  words  a  variant  of  "O  Moon- 
rise,"  the  tune  quite  worthy  of  being  described  as  a  flower 
of  melody  floating  on  dark  waters  in  the  shifting  shadows 
of  the  moon: 

1  "Slave  Songs,"  page  101. 

[   109  ] 


AFRO-AMERICAN   FOLKSONGS 


O  Graveyard! 


Andante 


2.  I  know  xnoonlig-ht,  I  know  starliglit, 
I'm  walkin'  troo  de  starlig-ht; 

Lay  dis  body  down. 

3.  Omysoull  O  your  soul! 

I'm  walkirf  troo  de  graveyard; 
Lay  dis  body  down. 

The  arrangement  made  Tor  this  work  by  H.  T.  Burleigh.  Words  aad  melody  from  "Slav* 
Soflgs  of  the  United  StatosP  New  York,  1867. 


r  110] 


STRUCTURE   OF  THE   POEMS;   FUNERAL  MUSIC 

0  graveyard!  O  graveyard! 
I'm  walkin'  troo  de  graveyard — 
Lay  dis  body  down. 

It  was  Mr.  Allen's  ingenious  surmise  that  this  was  the 
song  which  was  heard  by  Mr.  W.  H.  Russell,  war  corre- 
spondent of  the  London  "Times"  and  which  he  described 
in  Chapter  XVIII  of  "My  Diary,  North  and  South." 
He  is  telling  of  a  midnight  row  from  Potaligo  to  "Mr. 
Trewcott's  Estate"  on  Barnwell  Island: 

The  oarsmen,  as  they  bent  to  their  task,  beguiled  the  way  by  singing  in 
unison  a  real  negro  melody,  which  was  as  unlike  the  works  of  the  Ethiopian 
Serenaders  as  anything  in  song  could  be  unlike  another.  It  was  a  barbaric 
sort  of  madrigal,  in  which  one  singer  beginning  was  followed  by  the  others 
in  unison,  repeating  the  refrain  in  chorus,  and  full  of  quaint  expression  and 
melancholy: 

Oh,  your  soul!    Oh,  my  soul! 

I'm  going  to  the  churchyard 

To  lay  this  body  down; 

Oh,  my  soul!    Oh,  your  soul! 
We're  going  to  the  churchyard 
To  lay  this  nigger  down. 

And  then  some  appeal  to  the  difficulty  of  passing  the  "Jawdan"  constituted 
the  whole  of  the  song,  which  continued  with  unabated  energy  during  the 
whole  of  the  little  voyage.  To  me  it  was  a  strange  scene.  The  stream,  dark 
as  Lethe,  flowing  between  the  silent,  houseless,  rugged  banks,  lighted  up  near 
the  landing  by  the  fire  in  the  woods,  which  reddened  the  sky — the  wild  strain 
and  the  unearthly  adjurations  to  the  singer's  souls  as  though  they  were  pal- 
pable, put  me  in  mind  of  the  fancied  voyage  across  the  Styx. 


r  111  1 


CHAPTER  IX 

DANCES   OF  THE  AMERICAN 
NEGROES 


Creole  Music — The  Effect  of  Spanish  Influences- 
Obscenity  OF  Native  African  Dances — Relics  in 
THE  Antilles — The  Habanera — Dance-Tunes 
from  Martinique 


The  world  over  there  is  a  most  intimate  relationship 
between  folksong  and  folkdance.  Poetical  forms  and 
rhythms  are  the  effects  as  well  as  the  causes  of  the  re- 
gulated movements  and  posings  of  the  dance.  Peoples, 
like  those  of  Africa,  who  have  a  highly  developed  sense 
of  rhythm  also  have  a  passionate  fondness  for  the  dance, 
and  it  was  to  have  been  expected  that  the  black  slaves 
would  not  only  develop  them  in  their  new  environment, 
but  also  preserve  the  rhythms  of  those  primitive  dances 
in  the  folksongs  which  they  created  here.  This  was  the 
case,  in  a  measure,  but  the  influence  which  was  most  potent 
in  the  development  of  the  characteristic  folksong  was 
prejudicial  to  the  dance. 

The  dances  which  were  part  and  parcel  of  the  primitive 
superstitions  which  the  slaves  brought  with  them  from 
Africa  necessarily  fell  under  the  ban  of  the  Christian 
Church,  especially  of  its  Protestant  branch.  In  Louisiana, 
the  Antilles  and  Spanish  America  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church  exercised  a  restrictive  and  reformative  influence 
upon  the  dance;  in  other  parts  of  the  continent  the  Metho- 
dist and  Baptist  denominations,  whose  systems  were  most 
appealing  to  the  emotional  nature  of  the  blacks,  rooted 
it  out  altogether,  or  compelled  the  primitive  impulse  to 
And  expression  in  the  "shout" — just  as  the  same  influences 
led  the  white  population  to  substitute  the  song-games, 
which  are  now  confined  to  children,  for  the  dance  in  many 
sections  of  the  United  States. 

f  112  ] 


DANCES  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGROES 

Practically  all  of  the  dances  described  by  African  travel- 
lers were  orgies  in  which  the  dramatic  motif,  when  not 
martial,  was  lascivious.  Dr.  Holub,  in  his  *'Seven  Years 
in  South  Africa,"^  says  that  the  Mabunda  dance  is  of 
so  objectionable  a  character  that  the  negroes  refuse  to 
dance  it,  except  in  masks.  In  "From  Benguela  to  the 
Territory  of  Yucca,"  by  H.  Capello  and  R.  Ivens,  of  the 
Royal  Portuguese  Navy ,2  the  authors  say  of  the  native 
dances:  "As  a  rule,  these  are  of  the  grossest  kind,  which 
the  women,  more  particularly,  try  to  make  as  obscene  as 
possible;  without  grace,  without  cachet,  but  simply  in- 
decent and  fitted  only  to  inflame  the  passions  of  the 
lowest  of  our  sex.  After  three  or  four  pirouttes  before 
the  spectators,  the  male  dancer  butts  his  stomach  violently 
against  the  nearest  female,  who,  in  turn,  repeats  the 
action,  and  thus  brings  the  degrading  spectacle  to  an  end." 
Dr.  Georg  Schweinfurth,  in  his  "Heart  of  Africa,"^  describ- 
ing an  orgy  of  the  Bongo,  says:  "The  license  of  their 
revelry  is  of  so  gross  a  character  that  the  representations 
of  one  of  my  interpreters  must  needs  be  suppressed.  It 
made  a  common  market-woman  droop  her  eyes,  and  called 
up  a  blush  even  to  the  poor  sapper's  cheeks."  In  "Across 
Africa,"  by  Verney  Lovett  Cameron,  C.  B.,  D.  C.  L.,  com- 
mander in  the  Royal  Navy,^  the  author  writes:  "Dancing 
in  Manyuema" — a  cannibal  country — "is  a  prerogative  of 
the  chiefs.  When  they  feel  inclined  for  a  terpsichorean  per- 
formance they  single  out  a  good-looking  woman  from  the 
crowd,  and  the  two  go  through  much  wriggling  and  curious 
gesticulation  opposite  each  other.  The  village  drums  are 
brought  out  and  vigorously  beaten,  the  drummers  mean- 
while shouting  'Gamello!  Gamellol'  If  the  woman  is 
unmarried  the  fact  of  a  chief  asking  her  to  dance  is  equi- 
valent to  an  ofl'er  of  marriage,  and  many  complications 
often  occur  in  consequence." 

There  was  none  of  this  bestiality  on  exhibition  in  the 
dances  of  the  Dahomans,  which   I  saw  at  the  World's 

1  London,  1881. 

2  London,  1882. 

3  Vol.  I,  page  355. 

*   New  York:  Harper»s,  1887. 

r  113 1 


AFRO-AMERICAN   FOLKSONGS 

Fair  in  Chicago  in  1893,  for  reasons  which  can  easily  be 
imagined;  such  spectacles  as  the  travellers  describe  would 
not  be  tolerated  in  a  civilized  community  anywhere  in  the 
world  at  the  present  time,  though  the  equally  frank 
danse  du  ventre,  which  the  Latin  satirists  scourged  cen- 
turies ago,  was  to  be  seen  in  the  Midway  Plaisance 
under  circumstances  which  seemed  to  have  been  accepted 
as  a  palliative,  just  as  the  "tango"  and  the  "turkey-trot," 
the  former  African  in  name  and  both  African  in  dramatic 
motif  and  purpose,  are  tolerated  in  circles  which  call 
themselves  polite  to-day.  The  dances  of  the  Dahomans 
were  war  dances.  These  people  have  been  in  constant 
contact  with  white  traders  for  more  than  a  hundred  years, 
but  they  probably  take  the  same  "delight  in  singing, 
dancing  and  cutting  off  heads"  now  that  they  did  when 
Forbes  visited  them  three-quarters  of  a  century  ago. 
Indeed,  a  bit  of  pantomimic  action,  which  I  saw  repeated 
several  times  at  the  fair,  testified,  in  a  way  almost  too 
vivid  to  be  amusing,  to  the  love  of  decapitation  which  has 
been  so  much  commented  on  by  travellers. 

A  dozen  or  more  names  of  dances,  all  of  vague  meaning 
and  etymology,  have  come  down  to  us  in  the  books  of  men 
who  have  written  about  the  negroes  in  the  Western  Hemi- 
sphere, and  so  far  as  can  be  learned  all  these  dances  were 
more  or  less  wild  and  lascivious.  Lascivious  they  have 
remained,  even  in  the  forms  which  they  have  assumed 
under  the  influence  of  French  and  Spanish  culture.  There 
is  no  doubt  in  the  mind  of  Friedenthal,  whose  observations 
were  wide  and  whose  descriptions  are  sympathetic,  that 
the  rhythmical  foundation  of  the  fascinating  Habanera 
is  a  negro  product  upon  which  graceful  melodies  were 
imposed.  "We  shall  make  no  error,"  he  writes,^  in  assum- 
ing that  the  Habanera,  as  its  name  already  indicates, 
originated  in  Havana.  Thence  it  conquered  all  of  Spanish 
and  Portugese  America  (t.  e.,  Brazil),  and  also  the  European 
settlements  in  the  West  Indies,  Central  and  South  America. 
But  it  is  to  be  particularly  observed  that  only  the  real 
Habanera,    the   dance   with   simple   rhythms,    penetrated 

»  Op.  cit.,  pp.  115-116. 

[   114  1 


DANCES   OF  THE  AMERICAN   NEGROES 

to  these  lands.  Extended  and  complicated  rhythms  are 
known  only  where  the  negroes  are  to  be  found  outside 
of  the  West  Indies,  in  Brazil  and  on  the  coasts  of  Venezuela, 
Colombia,  Central  America  and  Mexico.  In  other 
countries,  as,  for  instance,  the  interior  of  Mexico,  the 
Plata  states  and  Chili,  where  there  are  no  negroes,  ex- 
tended and  complicated  rhythms  are  entirely  unknown." 
Commenting  in  another  place^  on  the  influences  which 
created  the  dances  of  the  American  Creoles,  he  says: 

Not  much  less  can  have  been  the  share,  on  the  other  hand,  which  the 
Spaniards  and  Creoles  took  in  the  dances  of  the  blacks.  Every  day  in  their 
hours  of  rest  they  had  opportunities  to  see  the  partly  sensual,  partly  grotesque 
and  wild  <lances  of  their  black  slaves,  and  to  hear  their  peculiar  songs.  What 
impressions  may  not  these  fascinating,  complicated  and  bizarre  and  yet  trans- 
parent rhythms  of  the  negroes  have  made  upon  the  Spaniards  who  themselves 
possess  a  refined  sense  of  rhythm.  Added  to  this  the  strange  instruments 
of  percussion  which,  while  marking  the  rhythm,  exerted  an  almost  uncanny 
effect. 

Here,  then,  two  races  confronted  each  other,  both  highly  musical  but 
reared  in  different  musical  worlds.  No  wonder  that  the  Spaniards  also  bene- 
fited from  and  promptly  took  up  these  remarkable  rhythms  into  their  own 
music.  Of  all  these  rhythms,  however,  the  simplest  which  can  be  heard  from 
all  negroes  is  this: 

which,  we  have  already  learned,  is  the  rhythm  of  the  Habanera.  The  melody 
of  the  Habanera,  which  we  would  derive  from  Middle  or  Southern  Spain,  and 
the  rhythm  which  accompanies  it  and  had  its  origin  in  Africa,  therefore  re- 
present, in  a  way,  the  union  of  Spanish  spirit  with  African  technique.  We 
thus  get  acquainted  with  a  hybrid  art  in  the  Habanera,  or  Danza,  but  as 
must  at  once  be  said  here,  the  only  hybrid  art-form  of  Creole  music. 

The  Habanera,  as  a  dance,  is  not  vocal,  but  its  form  has 
been  used  most  charmingly  in  vocal  music,  and  in  two 
of  its  manifestations.  Carmen's  air  in  the  first  scene  of 
Bizet's  opera  and  the  Mexican  song  "Paloma," 


uLruLru^ 


it  is  universally  familiar.  I  have  found  a  few  Afro-Ameri- 
can songs  in  which  the  characteristic  rhythm  is  so  persist- 
ently used  as  to  suggest  that  they  were  influenced  by  a 
subconscious  memory  of  the  old  dance;  but  the  evidence 
»  Page  95. 

[  115  ] 


AFRO-AMERICAN   FOLKSONGS 

is  not  sufficient  to  authorize  such  a  statement  as  a  scientific 
fact.  I  make  room  for  one,  "Tant  sirop  est  doux,"  an 
erotic  song  from  Martinique,  which  M.  Tiersot  says  is 
widely  known  among  French  colonies  inhabited  by  the 
blacks. 

The  origin  of  the  Habanera  is  perpetuated  in  its  name, 
and  in  this  respect  it  stands  alone.  Other  dances  of  which 
writers  on  the  Antilles  have  made  mention  are  the  Bam- 
boula,  Bouene,  Counjai  (or  Counjaille),  Calinda  (or  Calien- 
da,  possibly  from  the  Spanish  Que  Undo),  Bele  (from  the 
French  hel  air),  Benguine,  Babouille,  Cata  (or  Chata)  and 
Guiouba.  The  last  word  seems  preserved  in  the  term  "juba," 
which  is  now  applied  to  the  patting  accompaniments  of 
negro  dance-songs  made  familiar  by  the  old  minstrel  shows. 
The  word  Congo,  as  applied  to  a  negro  dance  which  is 
still  remembered  in  Louisiana,  is,  I  fancy,  a  generic  term 
there,  though  it  is  also  used  in  French  Guiana  for  a  dance 
called  Chica  in  Santo  Domingo  and  the  Windward 
Islands.  The  Bamboula  is  supposed  to  have  been  so  called 
after  the  drum  of  bamboo,  which  provided  its  musical 
stimulus.  An  African  word  seems  to  lie  at  the  bottom  of 
the  term  Counjai.  Long  years  ago  Lafcadio  Hearn  wrote 
me  from  New  Orleans:  *'My  quadroon  neighbor,  Mamzelle 
Eglantine,  tells  me  that  the  word  Koundjo  (in  the  West 
Indies  Candio  or  Candjo)  refers  to  an  old  African  dance 
which  used  to  be  danced  with  drums."  Perhaps  some  such 
meaning  is  preserved  in  the  Song  "Criole  Candjo."  (See 
page  Ii8.) 

The  etymology  of  the  other  terms  baffles  me,  but  it  is 
of  no  consequence  in  this  study;  the  dances  were  all  alike 
in  respect  of  the  savage  vigor  and  licentiousness  which 
marked  their  performance.  "The  Calinda,"  say  the 
editors  of  "Slave  Songs  of  the  United  States,"  "was  a  sort 
of  contradance  which  has  now  passed  entirely  out  of  use." 
Bescherelles  describes  the  two  lines  as  ^'avan^ant  et  reculant 
en  cadence  et  faisant  des  contortions  fort  singulieres  et  des 
gesies  fort  lascifsJ^  It  is  likely  that  the  Calinda  disappeared 
from  Louisiana  as  a  consequence  of  the  prohibition  of  the 
dances  in  the  Place  Congo  in  New  Orleans,  about  1843; 

f  116  1 


DANCES  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGROES 


Tant  sirop  est  doux 


Allegro  risoluto 


Tant    sirop  est  douz,  Made-lei. ne,  Tant  sirop  est  douzf  doaz! 


Ne 


fai   pas  tant    de     bruit,    Made-lein',  ne       fai  pas  tant    de     bruit,  Madelein', 


cri  •  ez    pas    si       fort,   Made-lein',  ne      cri-ez    pas    si       fort,   Madelein' 


,'   La 


mai- soonest  pas  a     nous,  Made-lein',  La      mai- son  nest  pas  a      nous 


A  Martimque  Song.  Words  and  Melody  collected  by  Lafcadio  Hearn.  Arrangement  by  the 
Anthor. 


117  1 


AFRO-AMERICAN   FOLKSONGS 


Criole  Candjo 


Moderate 


«Vi  -  ni,     za  -  mie,  pou'  nous    rire. 
"Swit-hawt,meckmer-rie  wld      me.". 


I  118] 


DANCES  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGROES 


«Non, 

"Naw 


Mi  .  che, 
sah,     I 


m'pas        ou  -    le         ri  - 
dawn't    want  meek  mer 


-  re 

-  rie. 


mom, 
me, 


Non       Mi  -  che,      m'pas       ou  -  le         ri    - 
Naw     sah,    I  dawn't  want  meek    mer 


re; 
rie; 


moin, 
me, 


Non,     Mi  -   che,      m'pas     ou  -  le  ri  - 

Naw     sah,     I  dawn*t  want  meek    mer 


-  re 

-  rie» 


Non,    Mi  -  che,    m'pas     ou  -  le         ri    - 
Naw    sah,    I         dawnt  want  meek  mer  - 


re.» 
rier 


[  119 


AFRO-AMERICAN   FOLKSONGS 

2. 
Mo  courri  dans  youn  bois  voisin, 
Mais  Criole  la  prend  meme  ci  min, 
Et  tous  tans  li  m'ape  dire, 
"Vini,  zamie,  pou'  nous  rire." 
"Non,  Miche,  m'pas  oule  rire  moin, 
Non,  Miche,  m'pas  oule  rire." 

3. 
Mais  li  te  tant  cicane  moi, 
Pou  li  te  quitte  moin  youn  fois 
Mo  te  'blize  pou'  li  dire, 
**Oui,  Miche,  mo  oule  rire. 
Oui,  Miche,  mo  oule  rire  moin, 
Oui,  Miche,  mo  oule  rire." 

4. 
Zaut  tous  qu'ap'es  rire  moin  la-bas 
Si  zaut  te  conne  Candjo  la, 
Qui  belle  fa^on  li  pou'  rire, 
Dje  pini  moin!  zaut  s're  dire, 
"Oui,  Miche,  mo  oule  rire  moin, 
Oui,  Miche,  mo  oule  rire." 

2. 
(I  go  teck  walk  in  wood  close  by. 
But  Creole  teck  same  road  and  try 
All  time  all  time  to  meek  free — 
"Swithawt,  meek  merrie  wid  me." 
"Naw,  sah,  I  dawn't  want  meek  merrie,  me, 
Naw,  sah,  I  dawn't  want  meek  merrie." 

3. 
But  him  slide  'round  an  'round  dis  chile. 
Tell,  jis  fo'  sheck  'im  off  lill  while 
Me,  I  was  bleedze  fo'  say:  "Shoo! 
If  I'll  meek  merrie  wid  you.'* 
O,  yass,  I  ziss  leave  meek  merrie,  me, 
Yass,  sah,  I  ziss  leave  meek  merrie." 

4. 
You-alls  wat  laugh  at  me  so  well, 
I  wish  you'd  knowed  dat  Creole  swell, 
Wid  all  'is  swit,  smilin'  trick. 
'Pon  my  soul!  you'd  done  say,  quick, 
*'0,  yass,  I  ziss  leave  meek  merrie,  me. 
Yass,  sah,  I  ziss  leave  meek  merrie.") 

The  melody  as  written  down  by  Mr.  W.  Macrum  of  Pittsburgh;  English 
paraphrase  by  George  W.  Cable,  used  by  his  permission  and  that  of  The  Cen- 
tury Company.  A  note  to  the  author  from  Lafcadio  Hearn  (who,  at  that 
time,  was  a  resident  of  New  Orleans),  says:  "My  quadroon  neighbor,  Mam- 
zelle  Eglantine,  tells  me  that  the  word  koundjo  (in  the  West  Indies  Candio 
or  Candjo)  refers  to  an  old  African  dance  which  used  to  be  danced  with  drums. 
The 'Criole  Candjo'  is,  therefore,  a  sort  of  nigger  Creole  dandy  who  charms  and 
cajoles  women  by  his  dancing — what  the  French  would  call  un  beau  valseur.'* 

I  120] 


DANCES  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGROES 

but  it  and  other  dances  of  its  character  have  remained  in 
existence  in  the  West  Indies.  Hearn  says,^  "Two  old  African 
dances,  the  Caleinda  and  the  Bele  (which  later  is  accom- 
panied by  chanted  improvization)  are  danced  on  Sundays 
to  the  sound  of  the  drum  on  almost  every  plantation  in 
the  island"  (Martinique).  As  Hearn  saw  the  Calinda 
it  was  danced  by  men  only,  all  stripped  to  the  waist  and 
twirling  heavy  sticks  in  a  mock  fight.  "Sometimes,"  he 
adds,  "especially  at  the  great  village  gatherings,  when  the 
blood  becomes  overheated  by  tafia,  the  mock  fight  may  be- 
come a  real  one,  and  then  even  cutlasses  are  brought 
into  play."  The  surmise  lies  near  that  the  Calinda  may 
originally  have  been  a  war  dance.  Its  name  and  measures 
survive  in  some  Creole  songs,  one  of  which  will  occupy  my 
attention  when  the  use  of  song  for  satirical  purposes  is 
reached. 

The  Counjai  ("Caroline,"  p.  139)  evidentlycameunderthe 
personal  observation  of  the  lady  who  collected  some  secular 
Creole  songs  in  St.  Charles  Parish,  La.,  which  found  their 
way  into  "Slave  Songs  of  the  United  States."  They  were 
sung,  she  says,  "to  a  simple  sort  of  dance,  a  sort  of  minuet." 
But  they  are  in  duple  time,  while  the  minuet  is  in  triple 
measure.  The  songs  have  a  refrain,  which  is  sung  by  the 
chorus,  and  solo  verses  which  are  improvized  by  a  leader 
distinguished  by  his  voice  and  poetical  skill,  who,  in  them, 
compliments  a  dusky  beauty  or  lauds  a  plantation  hero. 
The  dancers  do  not  sing,  and  the  accompaniment  seems 
to  be  purely  instrumental — a  mere  beating  on  a  drum  made 
of  a  flour  barrel  and  a  rasping  on  the  jawbone  of  an  animal 
with  a  key.  This  singular  instrument  has  a  prototype  in 
Africa  in  the  shape  of  a  notched  board,  which  is  rubbed 
with  a  stick.  Livingstone  describes  what  he  calls  a  "cas- 
suto,"  a  "hollow  piece  of  wood  about  a  yard  long,  covered 
with  a  board  cut  like  a  ladder.  Running  a  stick  along  it 
gives  a  sound  within  which  passes  for  a  tenor."  The  de- 
scription is  Wallaschek's;  the  Chinese  have  a  temple  instru- 
ment embodying  the  same  principle — a  wooden  tiger  with 
a  serrated  spine.    Hearn  mentions  primitive  drums  as  used 

1  "Two  Years,"  etc.,  p.  143. 

[  121  ] 


AFRO-AMERICAN    FOLKSONGS 


Aurore  Pradere 


Brlsklr 


Au   -    rore    Pra-  dSre,    belle    'ti     fille,  Au  -  rore    Pra- dfere, 

Au   -    rore    Pra- dere,    pret  -  ty  maid,         Au  -   rore    Pra-dere, 


beUe   'ti     fiUe, 
pret  -  ty  maid, 


Au  -    rore     Pra  -  dere,       belle    Hi     fille,  C'est 

Au  -  rore     Pra  -  dere,       pret  -  ty  maid.  She's 


li        mo      ou  -  le,      c'est         li      ma   pren.         Ya         raoun    qui       dit      li 
just  what    I    want    and       her   I'll    have-       Some      say     that    she':;  too 


[  122  1 


DANCES  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGROES 


trop     zo  ■  lie,  Ya       moun      qui        dit      li  pas    po  •  lie;  Tout 

pret  -  ty,  quite,      Some    folks    they    say    she's      not    po-lite;  All 


^a     7a     dlKSia!)    bin  fou  bin,       Cest     li      mo     ou- le,  cest    11    ma  pren. 
this  they  say,  no      fool  am  I,  For    she's  what  I  want,  and  her  l!ll  have. 


Anrore  Prad^re,  belle  Hi  filletC/er.) 
C^esi  li  mo  oale,  c'est  li  ma  pren. 

Li  pas  mande  robe  moussiline, 

Li  pas  mande  deba  brode, 

Li  pas  mande  Soulier  prinelle, 
C^est  li  mo  oale,  c'est  li  ma  pren. 


Aurore  Pradere,  pretty  maid,r/«r.; 

She's  just  what  I  want  and  her  I'll  have- 
A  muslin  g'own  she  does  n't  choose, 
She  does  n't  ask  for  broidered  hose» 
She  does  tft  want  prunella  shoes; 

O  she's  what  I  want  and  her  I'll  have. 


The  melody  in  the  rhythm  of  a  Coonjai.}i6loij  and  words  of  the  second  stanza  from"SlaT» 
Songs  of  the  United  States,"  having  been  collected  on  the  Good  Hope  plantation  in  St  Charles 
Parish  in  Louisiana.  The  arrangement  was  made  by  the  author  for  George  W.  Cablets  essay 
entitled  "The  Dance  in  the  Place  Congo','  which  appeared  in  the  Century  Magazine  for  Febru- 
ary, 1886.  Reprinted  by  permission  of  Mr.  Cable  and  the  Century  Co. 


I  123  1 


AFRO-AMERICAN   FOLKSONGS 


Remon,  R6mon 


Mo  par.le        Re.mon,        Re  ■   mon,     U     par.  16 


i  -  mon,        Si 


mon,     li     par-le         Ti-tine,         Ti  -   tine,    li     torn -be    dans      cha-grin. 


0      fenune      Ro.mu-Ius,      Ohel         Belle    femme       Ro-mu-lus,      0!_  0 


A  CooTtj'ai."!  spoke  to  Remon,  he  spoke  to  Simon,  he  spoke  toTitine,who  was  stricken  with 
grief.  O,  woman  Romulus,  beautiful  woman  Romulus,  you  have  done  to  me  what  you  wished" 
Words  and  melody  from  "Slave  Songs  of  the  United  States'.'  The  arrangement  by  John  Van 
Broekhoven,  printed  in  the  Century  Magazine  in  George  W.  Cable's  essayl'The  Dance  in  Place 
Congo','  is  here  reprinted  by  permission  of  Mr  Cable  and  the  Century  Co. 


124 


DANCES  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGROES 

in  New  Orleans  in  a  letter  to  me  dated  January,  1885:  "Yes, 
I  have  seen  them  dance,  but  they  danced  the  Congo,  and 
sang  a  purely  African  song  to  the  accompaniment  of  a 
drygoods  box  beaten  with  a  stick  or  bones  and  a  drum 
made  by  stretching  a  skin  over  a  flour  barrel.  As  for  the 
dance — in  which  the  women  do  not  take  their  feet  off  the 
ground — it  is  as  lascivious  as  is  possible.  The  men  dance 
very  differently,  like  savages  leaping  in  the  air.'* 

To  Mr.  Hearn  I  owe  several  examples  of  Martinique 
folk-music,  which  were  written  down  for  him  by  a  band- 
master in  St.  Pierre.  (Page  126.)  A  fascinating  combi- 
nation of  African  and  Spanish  elements  is  found  in  the 
melody,  which  the  collector  called  "Manmam  Colette" — 
unquestionably  a  dance-song.  On  the  bandmaster's 
transcription  he  had  written  directions  that  the  first  part 
(allegretto)  be  sung  eight  times;  then  comes  the  dance 
(allegro)  ten  times.  The  same  directions  probably  applied 
also  to  "Ou  beau  di  moin  tete  ou  bien  pomadee."  The 
second  part  of  the  tune,  to  which  the  bandmaster  gave 
the  title  "Dessan  mouillage  acheter  daubanes,"  has  a 
curious  resemblance  to  a  Tyrolean  "yodel."  It  is  probably 
the  melody  to  which  a  ballad  to  which  Hearn  makes  refer- 
ence is   sung: 

Moin  descenne  Saint-Pie, 

Achate  dobannes; 

Aulie  ces  dobannes 

Cast  yon  bel  bois  menmoin  monte. 

The  spelling  of  the  soft  and  musical  Creole  patois  is  a 
matter  of  individual  case,  taste  and  fancy.  The  ballad 
tells  the  story  of  a  youth  of  Fort  de  France  who  was  sent 
to  St.  Pierre  to  buy  a  stock  of  earthenware  water-jars 
{dobannes),  but  who  fell  in  love  with  a  colored  girl  and  spent 
his  father's  money  in  buying  her  presents  and  a  wedding 
outfit.  Hearn  cites  the  song  to  illustrate  a  pretty  simile. 
The  phrase  "bel  bois"  is  used  to  designate  handsome  people. 
"Toutt  bel  bois  ka  alle,"  said  Manm-Robert,  meaning  that 
all  the  handsome  people  are  passing  away.  "This  is  the 
very  comparison  made  by  Ulysses  looking  upon  Nausicaa, 
though  more  na'ively  expressed,"  comments  our  author. 

f  125  I 


AFRO-AMERICAN   FOLKSONGS 


Three  Dance-tunes  from  Martinique 

N?  i.  Manmam  Colette 
Allegretto 


N9  2,  Ou  beau  di  moin  tete  ou  bien  pomadee 


N9  3.  Dessan  mouillage  acheter  daubanes 


Traascrlbed  hj  &  Baadxnaster  at  St  Pierre  and  sent  to  the  author  by  Lafcadio  Heara 


[  126] 


CHAPTER  X 
SONGS   OF  THE   BLACK   CREOLES 


The   Language   of  the  Afro-American   Folksongs — 

Phonetic  Changes  in  English — Grammar  of  the 

Creole  Patois — Making  French  Compact 

AND  Musical — Dr.  Mercier's  Pamphlet — 

Creole  Love-Songs 


The  circumstance  that  the  folksongs  of  the  slaves  were 
preserved  by  oral  tradition  alone  until  nearly  fifty  years 
ago,  when  the  first  collection  was  printed,  gives  peculiar 
interest  to  a  study  of  their  language — or  rather  their 
languages,  for  the  songs  of  the  black  Creoles  of  Louisiana 
and  the  Antilles  are  also  American  folksongs,  though  they 
are  sung  in  French  patois  and  not  in  English.  In  both 
cases  a  fundamental  phenomenon  confronts  us:  The 
slave  had  to  make  the  language  in  which  he  communicated 
with  his  master,  or  rather  he  had  to  reconstruct  it  orally 
without  the  help  of  written  or  printed  books.  Having 
made  his  patois,  he  forgot  his  own  native  tongue  and  per- 
petuated the  new  medium  of  communication  in  the  same 
way  in  which  he  had  learned  and  perpetuated  the  African 
language.  After  this  had  been  done  and  the  new  tongue 
had  become  to  him  a  vehicle  for  his  rude  artistic  utter- 
ances, those  utterances  had  to  be  retained  by  tradition 
and  transmitted  by  word  of  mouth  entirely.  This  brought 
with  it  a  phenomenon  with  which  students  of  ballads  are 
familiar — the  corruptions  of  texts  due  to  the  habit  of  accept- 
ing sound  for  sense.  The  slaves  of  the  States  in  which  the 
masters  spoke  English,  under  Protestant  influences,  heard 
the  Biblical  expressions  which  appealed  powerfully  to  their 
imagination  and  emotions  from  their  preachers,  some  of 
whom  were  as  illiterate  as  the  multitude  they  sought  to 
enlighten.  They  heard  their  masters  use  many  words  of 
which  they  could  only  surmise  the  meaning,  but  which  also 
appealed  to  them  as  resounding  and  mouth-filling.     Like 

[  127  1 


AFRO-AMERICAN   FOLKSONGS 

children  they  accepted  the  sounds  without  inquiring  into 
the  sense,  or  gave  them  meanings  of  their  own.  Such 
terms  as  "iggle-quarter,"  "count-aquils"  and  "ginny-bank" 
in  the  working  song  "Ho,  round  the  corn,  Sally,''  may  be 
corruptions  of  French  words  heard  from  the  Huguenot 
refugees.  (Unless,  indeed,  **iggle-quarter"  be  eagle-quarter, 
"ginny-bank,"  the  Bank  of  Virginia,  and  the  lines  have 
a  financial  sense.)  Others  have  a  more  or  less  obvious  inter- 
pretation. "Oh,  my  body  rock  'long  fever"  may  have 
well  been  carried  away  from  a  sickroom  as  the  remark 
of  master  or  mistress:  "My  body  has  long  been  racked 
by  a  fever."  "Body  racked  wid  pain"  is  a  line  in  one  of 
the  songs  which  I  have  printed — "O'er  the  Crossing."  I 
cannot  accept  the  interpretation  of  "Daniel  rock  de  lion 
joy"  as  "Daniel  racked  the  lion's  jaw,"  given  in  a  footnote 
of  "Slave  Songs";  "locked  the  lion's  jaw"  is  too  obviously 
the  correct  reading.  "An'  de  nineteen  wile  in  his  han'" 
is  pretty  plainly  indicated  as  once  having  read:  "The  anoint- 
ing oil  in  his  hand"  by  the  context,  and  "John  sittin'  on 
de  golden  order"  was  probably  "John  sitting  on  the  golden 
altar" — a  picture  which  could  not  fail  to  appeal  to  the 
fancy  of  the  negroes,  though  I  do  not  know  where  they 
found  it. 

The  survival  of  words  from  African  languages  seems 
much  smaller  in  the  songs  than  in  the  folktales  from  Ba- 
hama which  Professor  Edwards  prints  in  his  book.^  As  I 
have  intimated,  these  words  would  naturally  be  retained 
in  songs  connected  with  superstitious  ceremonies  and 
forbidden  dances. 

In  his  preface  to  "Slave  Songs"  Mr.  Allen  points  out 
that  "phonetic"  decay  had  gone  very  far  in  the  speech  of 
the  slaves,  and  with  it  "an  extreme  simplification  of  ety- 
mology and  syntax."  Th  and  v  ov  f  had  been  softened 
into  d  and  h\  v  and  w  had  been  interchanged;  words  had 
been  shorn  of  syllables  which  seemed  redundant — as  illus- 
trated in  "lee'  bro'  "  for  "little  brother."  The  letters  w,  v 
and  r  were  sometimes  used  euphonically,  perhaps  to  grat- 
ify a  melodic  sense,  as  the  vowel  a  frequently  was  for 
'  "Bahama  Songs  and  Stories." 

[  128  1 


SONGS   OF  THE   BLACK   CREOLES 

rhythmical  effect.  Mr.  Allen  gives  an  example  of  the 
euphonic  n :  "He  de  baddes'  little  gal  from  yere  to  w'Europe" ; 
the  interjection  of  a,  as  in  "settin'  side-aobde  holy  Lamb/' 
is  very  common. 

There  were  contractions  which  scarcely  call  for  comment, 
in  view  of  what  still  happens  every  day  among  cultured 
white  people  in  colloquial  speech.  The  progress  of  "How 
do  you  do?"  through  "How  d'ye  do.?"  and  "How  dy'.?" 
to  "Huddy"  is  very  patent,  and  we  can  scarcely  deplore 
it  in  view  of  the  singularly  mellifluous  and  brisk  line  "Tell 
my  Jesus  huddy  O."  The  grammatical  simplifications  were 
natural  enough  in  a  people  who  hadtospeak  alanguage  which 
they  were  not  permitted  to  learn  to  read  or  write.  Em  was  a 
pronoun  which  applied  to  all  genders  and  both  numbers; 
been  and  done  as  the  past  tenses  of  verbs  are  familiar 
to-day  among  other  than  the  blacks  in  the  South,  as  are 
many  other  peculiarities  of  grammar  of  which  we  cannot 
say  whether  the  slaves  borrowed  them  from  the  illiterate 
whites  or  the  whites  from  them. 

It  is  perhaps  a  little  singular,  though  not  impossible 
of  explanation,  that  the  negroes  who  came  under  the 
domination  of  the  French  colonists  of  Louisiana  and  the 
West  Indies  should  have  developed  a  patois  or  dialect, 
which  is  not  only  more  euphonious  than  the  language  from 
which  it  was  derived,  but  also  have  created  a  system  of 
grammar  which  reflects  credit  upon  their  logical  capacity 
and  their  musical  instincts.  The  peculiarities  of  the 
English  songs  referred  to  are  nearly  all  extinct,  but  the 
Creole  patois,  though  never  reduced  to  writing  for  its  users, 
is  still  a  living  language.  It  is  the  medium  of  communica- 
tion between  black  nurses  and  their  charges  in  the  French 
families  of  Louisiana  to-day,  and  half  a  century  ago  it 
was  exclusively  spoken  by  French  Creoles  up  to  the  age  of 
ten  or  twelve  years.  In  fact,  children  had  to  be  weaned 
from  it  with  bribes  or  punishment.  It  was,  besides,  the 
language  which  the  slave  spoke  to  his  master  and  the 
master  to  him.  The  need  which  created  it  was  the  same  as 
that  which  created  the  corrupt  English  of  the  slaves  in 
other  parts  of  the  country.    The  Africans  who  were  brought 

[  129] 


AFRO-AMERICAN   FOLKSONGS 

to  America  had  no  written  language.  Among  them  there 
was  diversity  of  speech  as  well  as  of  tribes  and  customs. 
The  need  of  a  medium  of  communication  between  them  and 
their  masters  was  greater  than  that  of  a  communal  lan- 
guage for  themselves;  and  in  its  construction  they  had  the 
help  of  their  masters,  who  were  not  averse  to  a  simplifica- 
tion of  their  colloquial  speech.  The  African  languages  were 
soon  forgotten.  Dr.  Alfred  Mercier,  who  wrote  a  de- 
lightful brochure  on  the  grammar  of  the  creole  patois 
some  forty  or  more  years  ago,^  says  that  there  were  then 
not  more  than  six  or  seven  African  words  in  the  language 
spoken  by  the  Creoles.  His  meaning,  no  doubt,  was  that 
only  so  many  words  were  employed  colloquially,  for  a 
great  many  more  were  in  use  in  the  incantations  which 
formed  a  part  of  their  superstitious  rites  and  in  some  of 
the  songs  which  accompanied  their  orgiastic  dances, 
though  their  meaning  was  forgotten.  How  the  black 
slave  proceeded  in  the  construction  of  a  grammar  for  the 
speech  which  he  took  from  the  lips  of  his  master  is  most 
interestingly  described  by  Dr.  Mercier  in  his  pamphlet, 
on  which  I  have  drawn  for  the  following  notes: 

In  the  first  place,  the  negro  composes  the  verb.  For 
his  present  indicative  he  takes  a  pronoun  and  the  adjective 
which  qualifies  a  state  of  being.  He  says  Mo  contan  (Je 
suis  content)  for  "Moi  etre  content";  he  suppresses  the 
infinitive  (etre).  The  present  indicative  tells  us  that  the 
action  expressed  by  the  verb  is  doing.  You  present  your- 
self at  the  door  of  a  house  and  say  to  the  negress  who  opens 
to  your  knock  that  you  want  to  speak  to  her  master.  She 
replies  that  he  dines  (qu'il  dine);  i.  e.,  he  is  dining  (qu'il 
est  dinant);  to  form  the  present  participle  she  makes  use 
of  the  pronoun  lui  (which  she  pronounces  li)  and  places 
it  before  the  preposition  apres  {ape).  Of  these  two  words 
she  makes  one,  lape,  to  which  she  adds  the  infinitive  diner — 
lape  dinin — (il  est  apres  diner). 

The  preposition  apres  plays  an  important  role  in  the 
Creole  patois.    Dr.  Mercier  points  out  that  it  is  used  by  the 

>  **£tude  sur  la  Langue  Creole  en  Louisiane,"  evidently  printed  for  private 
circulation,  and  bearing  neither  imprint  nor  date. 

[  130  1 


SONGS  OF  THE   BLACK  CREOLES 


negroes  In  the  same  sense  in  which  it  was  employed  long 
ago  in  France:  etre  apres  fairs  quelque  chose,  to  be  after 
doing  something — a  locution  found  in  Languedoc.^  The 
Creole  negro  takes  the  word  indicating  a  state  of  being  and 
prefixes  the  pronoun: 


Mo — Je  suis — I  am 

To— Tu  es— Thou  art 

Li — II  est — He  is 

Nou — Nous  sommes — We  are 

Vou — Vous  etes — You  are 

Ye — lis  sont — They  are 


•  malade — i 


malades — ill. 


To  express  an  act  in  the  course  of  accomplishment  re- 
course is  had  to  the  pronoun  joined  to  the  preposition 
apres  {ape)  which  is  followed  by  the  infinitive:  Moi 
apres,  i.  e..  Mo  ape,  which  is  contracted  into  mape,  and  so 
on  with  the  rest: 


Mape 
Tape 
Lape 
Nape 
Fape 
Yape 


dinin. 


the  equivalent  of 


Je  suis 
Tu  es 
II  est 

Nous  sommes 
Vous  etes 
lis  sont 


apres  diner. 


Nothing  remains  of  the  pronoun,  except  the  sound  of 
the  initial  letter,  and  these  people  having  no  written 
language,  even  the  letter  does  not  exist  for  them.  When 
the  black  slave  heard  his  master  speak  of  things  in  the  past 
tense  it  was  the  sound  te  which  fell  most  frequently  and 
persistently  into  his  ear:  J'etais,  tu  etais,  il  etait,  ils 
etaient.  Upon  this  te  the  negro  seized  as  representing 
or  figuring  the  past,  and  joining  it  to  the  pronoun  he 
formed  his  imperfect  indicative  of  the  verb  etre: 

Mote — J'etais. 
Tote — Tu  etais. 
Lite — II  etait. 
Noute — Nous  etions. 
Foute — Vous  etiez. 
Yete — lis  etaient. 

^  I  might  add  that  it  is  a  form  with  which  the  English  language  has  been 
enriched  by  an  Irish  idiom. 

[  131  ] 


AFRO-AMERICAN   FOLKSONGS 

The  negro  hears  some  one  say  to  the  white  man  who  is 
expecting  an  arrival,  "II  va  venir."  He  recognizes  that 
"va''  as  the  sign  of  the  future.  For  "Ce  gros  bateau  a 
vapeur  ne  pourra  pas  descendre  quand  Teau  sera  basse" 
he  says :  Gro  stimhotte-ld  pas  capah  decende  can  lo  va  basse.  To 
"va"  he  attached  the  infinitive  of  the  verb  to  determine  the 
kind  of  action,  and  the  pronoun  to  indicate  the  actor. 
Thus  va  chante  tells  us  that  there  is  to  be  singing.  Who  is 
to  sing?    The  pronoun  gives  the  information: 


Mo 
To 
Li 

Nou 
Fou 
Ye 


■  va  chante. 


This  is  the  primitive  stage  of  the  process  which  in  the 
mouth  of  the  future  creole  undergoes  two  changes:  The 
sound  va  is  combined  with  the  pronoun  (mova,  tova,  liva, 
nouva,  vouva,  yeva — chante),  and  then  for  economical  con- 
traction the  sounds  ov,  iv,  ouv,  ev  are  elided,  the  initial 
letter  of  the  pronoun  is  united  with  the  radical  sound  a, 
and  we  have: 


Ma 
Ta 
La 

Na 
Va 
Ya 


chante. 


Sometimes  there  is  a  still  further  contraction,  the  pro- 
nominal consonant  disappearing,  leaving  the  vowel  a  alone 
to  represent  the  future.  For  the  imperative  mood  the  creole 
uses  the  infinitive,  preceded  by  the  noun  or  pronoun;  for 
"Que  Jules  vienne  avec  vous"  he  says:  Jule  vini  ave  vou. 
The  first  person  plural  in  the  creole  imperative  is  curious 
in  that  to  form  it  he  calls  in  the  help  of  the  imperative 
verb  "aller,"  which  he  pronounces  anon;  "Traversons  cette 
rue"  becomes  anon  traverse  larue  cila.  He  escapes  such 
embarrassments  as  "buvons,"  "dormons,"  "cousons"  with 
the  help  of  his  ever-ready  anon — anon  hoi,  anon  dormi, 
anon  coude. 

"In  its  transformation  into  creole,"  says  Dr.  Mercier, 
"French  is  simplified  and  acquires  either  grace  or  strength. 

[  132  1 


SONGS   OF   THE   BLACK   CREOLES 

In  many  cases  the  verbs  *to  be'  {etre)  and  *to  have'  {avoir) 
disappear:  Li  vaillan  (il  est  vaillant);  Li  pas  peur  (il 
n'a  pas  peur).  In  French  the  negative  particles  are  over- 
abundant; it  is  one  of  the  faults  of  the  language.  In  the 
phrase  *I1  n'a  pas  peur'  there  are  two  negatives,  *ne'  and 
*pas.'  The  creole  uses  only  one  and  says  in  three  words 
what  the  speaker  of  French  says  in  five.  The  difference 
is  still  more  apparent  in  the  phrases  "Je  commence  a  etre 
fatigue;  je  crois  qu'il  est  temps  de  nous  en  retourner" — 
fourteen  words;  Mo  comance  lasse;  mo  ere  tan  nou  tournin 
— eight.  Moreover,  fleetness  is  acquired  by  the  suppression 
of  the  preposition  'a'  and  the  conjunction  'que.'  " 

Obeying  the  law  of  laziness,  or  following  the  line  of 
least  resistance,  the  creole  elides  the  letters  which  are 
difficult  of  pronunciation,  or  substitutes  easy  ones  for 
them.  The  letter  r  is  as  difficult  for  the  negro  as  it  is  for 
the  Chinaman;  he  elides  it  and  says  pou  for  pour,  ape 
for  apres,  di  for  dire,  cate  for  quatre.  In  Martinique,  if  I 
am  to  judge  by  my  songs,  when  he  does  not  dispense  with 
the  letter  altogether  he  gives  it  a  soft  sound,  like  an  in- 
fusion of  w  into  ou:  ouoche  for  roche.  The  French  sound 
of  u  is  as  difficult  for  the  negro  as  it  is  for  the  Ameri- 
can or  Englishman;  he  does  not  struggle  with  it,  but  sub- 
stitutes the  short  sound  of  i:  torti  for  tortue,  jige  for  juge, 
or  he  uses  the  continental  sound  (oo) :  la  nouite  for  la  nuit, 
tou  souite  for  tout  de  suite.  Eu  he  changes  to  ai,  as  in  air; 
lonair  for  I'honneur;  j  and  g  giving  him  trouble,  he  changes 
them  to  z:  touzou  for  toujours,  zamais  for  jamais,  manze 
for  mange.  He  has  no  use  for  the  first  person  pronoun 
"je,"  mo  sufficing  him;  and  "tu"  he  replaces  with  to  and 
toi.  Words  which  are  too  long  to  suit  his  convenience  he 
abbreviates  at  pleasure:  barace,  embarrasse;  pele,  appele; 
blie,   oublie. 

Thus,  then,  grew  the  pretty  language,  soft  in  the  mouth 
of  the  Creole  as  bella  lingua  in  bocca  toscana,  in  which  the 
Creole  sang  of  his  love,  gave  rhythmical  impulse  to  the 
dance,  or  scourged  with  satire  those  who  fell  under  his 
displeasure — the  uses  to  which  the  music  was  put  which  I 
purpose  now  to  discuss.    It  should  be  borne  in  mind  that 

[  133  ] 


AFRO-AMERICAN    FOLKSONGS 

the  popular  notion  in  the  United  States  that  a  Creole  is  a 
Louisiana  negro  is  erroneous.  Friedenthal  discusses  the 
origin  of  the  word  and  its  application  in  the  introduction 
to  his  book  "Musik,  Tanz  und  Dichtung  bei  den  Kreolen 
Amerikas."  The  Spanish  word  criollo,  from  which  the 
French  Creole  is  derived,  is  a  derivation  from  the  verb 
criar,  to  create,  bring  up,  breed.  From  this  root  other 
words  are  derived;  not  only  substantives  like  cria  (brood), 
crianza  (education,  bringing  up),  criatura^  criador,  etc.,  but 
also  criada  (servant),  which  in  other  languages  has  a 
very  different  etymology  (Diener,  serviteur,  domestique, 
servo,  etc.).  The  term  criado  is  a  relic  of  the  old  patriarchal 
system,  under  which  the  servants  of  the  household  were 
brought  up  by  the  family.  Children  of  the  servants  became 
servants  of  the  children  of  the  master.  So  on  the  plan- 
tations of  the  Southern  States  slaves  were  set  apart  from 
childhood  to  be  the  playmates  and  attendants  of  the 
children  of  the  family.  Criollo  also  signifies  things  bred 
at  home  but  born  in  foreign  lands,  and  thus  it  came  about 
that  the  Spaniard  called  his  children  born  in  foreign  lands 
criollos;  and  as  these  foreignlands  were  chiefly  the  American 
colonies,  the  term  came  to  be  applied  first  to  the  white 
inhabitants  of  the  French  and  Spanish  colonies  in  America 
and  only  secondarily  to  the  off"spring  of  mixed  marriages, 
regardless  of  their  comparative  whiteness  or  blackness. 

When  Lafcadio  Hearn  was  looking  up  Creole  music  for 
me  in  New  Orleans  in  the  early  8o's  of  the  last  century,  he 
wrote  in  one  of  his  letters:  **The  Creole  songs  which  I  have 
heard  sung  in  the  city  are  Frenchy  in  construction,  but 
possess  a  few  African  characteristics  of  method.  The 
darker  the  singer  the  more  marked  the  oddities  of  into- 
nation. Unfortunately,  most  of  those  I  have  heard  were 
quadroons  or  mulattoes."  In  another  letter  he  wrote: 
"There  could  neither  have  been  Creole  patois  nor  Creole 
melodies  but  for  the  French  and  Spanish  blooded  slaves 
of  Louisiana  and  the  Antilles.  The  melancholy,  quavering 
beauty  and  weirdness  of  the  negro  chant  are  lightened  by 
the  French  influence,  or  subdued  and  deepened  by  the 
Spanish."     Hearn  was  musically  illiterate,  but  his  powers 

f  134  1 


SONGS   OF   THE    BLACK   CREOLES 

of  observation  were  keen  and  his  intuitions  quick  and 
penetrating.  He  felt  what  I  have  described  as  the  imposi- 
tion of  French  and  Spanish  melody  on  African  rhythm. 

This  union  of  elements  is  found  blended  with  the  French 
patois  in  the  songs  created  by  the  Creole  negroes  in  Louisiana 
and  the  West  Indies.  Hearn  came  across  an  echo  of  the 
most  famous  of  all  Creole  love-songs  in  St.  Pierre  and  in  his 
fantastic  manner  gave  it  a  habitation  and  a  name.  De- 
scribing the  plague  of  smallpox  in  a  chapter  of  "Two  Years 
in  the  French  West  Indies,''  he  tells  of  hearing  a  song  com- 
ing up  through  the  night,  sung  by  a  voice  which  had  "that 
peculiar  metallic  timbre  that  reveals  the  young  negress." 

Always  it  is  one  "melancholy  chant": 

Pauv'  tl  Lele, 

Pauv*  ti  Lele! 

Li  gagnin  doule,  doule,  doule, — 

Le  gagnin  doule 

Tout  patout! 

I  want  to  know  who  little  Lele  was,  and  why  she  had  pains  "all  over" — 
for  however  artless  and  childish  these  Creole  songs  seem,  they  are  invariably 
originated  by  some  real  incident.  And  at  last  somebody  tells  me  that  "poor 
little  Lele  had  the  reputation  of  being  the  most  unlucky  girl  in  St.  Pierre; 
whatever  she  tried  to  do  resulted  only  in  misfortune; — when  it  was  morning 
she  wished  it  were  evening,  that  she  might  sleep  and  forget;  but  when  the 
night  came  she  could  not  sleep  for  thinking  of  the  trouble  she  had  had  during 
the  day,  so  that  she  wished  it  were  morning.     ..." 

Perhaps  "Pov'  piti  Lolotte"  (a  portion  of  whose  melody 
served  Gottschalk,  a  New  Orleans  Creole  of  pure  blood,  for 
one  of  his  pianoforte  pieces)  came  from  the  West  Indies 
originally,  but  it  is  known  throughout  Creoleland  now.  It 
fell  under  the  notice  of  Alphonse  Daudet,  who,  Tiersot  says, 
put  it  in  the  mouth  of  one  of  his  characters  in  a  novel.  Out 
of  several  versions  which  I  have  collected  I  have  put  the 
song  together,  words  and  melody,  in  the  form  in  which 
Mr.  Burleigh  has  arranged  it.  (See  page  136.)  It  is  worth 
noting  that  the  coda  of  the  melody  was  found  only  in  the 
transcript  made  from  the  singing  of  the  slaves  on  the 
Good  Hope  plantation,  in  St.  Charles  Parish,  La.,  and 
that  this  coda  presents  a  striking  use  of  the  rhythmical 
snap  which  I  have  discussed  in  connection  with  the  "spirit- 
uals," but  which  is  not  found  in  any  one  of  them  with  so 
much  emotional  effect  as  here.    In  his  essay  in  "The  Cen- 

f  135  1 


AFRO-AMERICAN   FOLKSONGS 


Pov*  piti  Lolotte 


Andante  cantabile 


Pov' pi-ti  Lo4otte  amooln,  Pot' pi-ti  Lo-lotte  amouin., 


Li    gagnin  bo-bo,  bo-bo,      Li  ga-gnin  dou-Ie.  Pov*pi>ti   Lo-Iotte  a  mouin, 


Pov'pi-ti  Lolotte  amouin,    Li  gagnin  bo-bo, bo-bo,      Li  gagnin  dou-le.     |jv»**  *" 


136  ] 


SONGS    OF   THE    BLACK    CREOLES 


lou      po  •  te      ma-drasse,  11       po   -    te      ji  -  pon-    gar-  ni.        Ca  <•  la  - 
quand    po  .  te      la    chaine,  A  -  dieu     cour-ri     tout   bon-heur,    D'a-mour 


lou       po  -  te      ma-drasse,    Ji        po    -     te      ji  -  pon     gar-  ni. 
quand     po  -  te      la    chaine,    A-  dieu       cour-ri      tout    bon-heur. 


[I  hH  1 

^ 

F=l 

(f4f^ 

rq 

p= 

fc— 

^ 

^=^ 

33 

[F 

=^ 

« 

F= 

I>fJ 

V-i 

r     xv  _mJ 

PoVpiti  Lolotteamouin, 

Pov'pi-ti  Lolotteamouin, 

Li  gagr 

lin  bo-bo,  b 

T6  "^^i 

>-bo,Li  gagTiin 

1  J7=?^  1 

^^ 

f 

f^ 

f 

- 

f 

S      " 

f 

■*  * 

!?    * 

fc>:  1  K  L 

- 

^- 

h+^ 

J 

J 

J 

r 

-^- 

-^ 

.  ^  t*  V  , 

~ 

5 

h^ 

— 

T 

— ■ 

_■ 

Words  and  melody  collated  from  yarious  sources  by  tbe  aatbor.  The  arraageffleot  made  by 
H.T.  Burleigh. 


[  137] 


AFRO-AMERICAN   FOLKSONGS 
tury  Magazine"  on  creole  songs  Mr.  Cable  wrote: 

One  of  the  best  of  these  Creole  love-songs  ...  is  the  tender  lament 
of  one  who  sees  the  girl  of  his  heart's  choice  the  victim  of  chagrin  in  beholding 
a  female  rival  wearing  those  vestments  of  extra  quality  that  could  only  be 
the  favors  which  both  women  had  courted  from  the  hand  of  some  proud 
master  whence  alone  such  favors  should  come.  "Calalou,"  says  the  song, 
"has  an  embroidered  petticoat,  and  Lolotte,  or  Zizi,"  as  it  is  often  sung,  "has 
a  heartache."  Calalou,  here,  I  take  to  be  a  derisive  nickname.  Originally 
it  is  the  term  for  a  West  Indian  dish,  a  noted  ragout.  It  must  be  intended 
to  apply  here  to  the  quadroon  women  who  swarmed  into  New  Orleans  in 
1809  as  refugees  from  Cuba,  Guadaloupe  and  other  islands  where  the  war 
against  Napoleon  exposed  them  to  Spanish  and  British  aggression.  It  was 
with  this  great  influx  of  persons,  neither  savage  nor  enlightened,  neither 
white  nor  black,  neither  slave  nor  truly  free,  that  the  famous  quadroon  caste 
arose  and  flourished.  If  Calalou,  in  the  verse,  was  one  of  these  quadroon 
fair  ones,  the  song  is  its  own  explanation. 

In  its  way  the  song  "Caroline"  (see  page  139)  lets  light 
into  the  tragedy  as  well  as  the  romance  of  the  domestic 
life  of  the  young  creole  slaves.  Marriage,  the  summit  of 
a  poor  girl's  ambition,  is  its  subject — that  state  of  blissful 
respectability  denied  to  the  multitude  either  by  law  or 
social  conditions.  I  have  taken  words  and  melody  from 
"Slave  Songs,"  but  M.  Tiersot,  who  wrote  the  song  down 
from  the  singing  of  a  negress  in  New  Orleans,  gives  the 
name  of  the  heroine  as  Azelie  and  divides  the  poem  into 
two  stanzas  separated  by  a  refrain: 

Papa  dit  non,  maman  dit  non, 

C'est  li  m'oule,  c'est  li  ma  pren.     {Bis) 

Un,  deux,  trois,  Azelie. 

Pas  pare  com  9a,  ma  cher!    {Bis) 

Sam'di  I'amour,  Dimanch'  marie, 
Lundi  matin  piti  dans  bras; 
N'a  pas  convert',  n'a  pas  de  draps, 
N'a  pas  a  rien,  piti  dans  bras! 

(Papa  says  no,  mama  says  no. 

It  is  he  whom  I  want  and  who  will  have  me. 
One,  two,  three;  don't  talk  that  way,  my  dear! 
Saturday,  love;  Sunday,  married; 

Monday  morning,  a  little  one  in  arms. 
There  is  no  coverlet,  no  sheets,  nothing — little  one  in  arms!) 

Tiersot  gives  the  melody  of  the  stanzas  in  5-8  time,  of  the 
refrain  in  2-4,  and  describes  the  movements  of  the  dancers 
(the  song  is  a  Counjai)  as  a  somewhat  languorous  turning 
with  a  slight  swaying  of  the  body.  I  have  translated 
"cabanne"  cabin,  but  in  Martinique  **caban"  signifies  a  bed, 
and  in  view  of  M.  Tiersot's  variant  text  this  may  also 
have  been  the  meaning  of  the  term  in  Louisiana. 

[  138  1 


SONGS   OF  THE   BLACK   CREOLES 


Allegro 


Aine,     de,     trois,    Ca-ro-Iine,       ^a,   ^a,  ye  comme  ^a,  ma  cheret 


Aine,       de,       trois,      Ca-ro-Iine,       ^a,    ^a,   yd'comme    ^a,  ma  cheref 


Pa  .  pa  di  non,     man-man    di  oui,     C'est     limopu-le,       c^est    li  mapren.  Ya 


pas    lar.  zan      pou^a-chete  cabanne,     C'est       limoj)u-le,        c'est   li   mapren. 


Words  and  melody  from  "Slave  Songs  of  the  United  States'.'  The  arrangement,  by  John  Van 
Broekhoven,  to  a  variant  of  the  poem,  was  printed  by  Mr.  Cable  in  his  essay  on"The  Dance 
in  Place  Congo"  and  is  here  reprinted  by  permission  of  Bir.  Cable  and  the  Century  Co.,  the 
words  as  song  on  the  Good  Hope  Plantation,  St.  Charles  Parish,  La.,being  restored. The  mean- 
ing of  the  words  is:  "One,  two,  three,  that's  the  way,  my  dear.  Papa  says  no,  mama  says  yes; 
Tls  him  I  want  and  he  that  will  have  me.  There  wiO  be  no  money  to  boy  a  cabin!' 


I  139] 


CHAPTER  XI 
SATIRICAL  SONGS  OF  THE  CREOLES 


A  Classification  of  Slave  Songs — The  Use  of  Music 
IN  Satire — African  Minstrels — The  Carnival  in 
Martinique — West      Indian      Pillards — Old 
BoscoYo's  Song  in    New  Orleans — Con- 
clusion— An    American    School    of 
Composition 


In  an  appendix  to  his  "Bahama  Songs  and  Stones" 
Professor  Edwards  cites  John  Mason  Brown  as  giving  the 
following  classification  of  the  songs  of  the  slave  in  an 
article  printed  in  "Lippincott's  Magazine"  for  Decem- 
ber, 1868: 

1.  Religious  songs,  e.  g.,  "The  Old  Ship  of  Zion,"  where  the  refrain  of 
"Glory,  halleloo'*  in  the  chorus  keeps  the  congregation  well  together  in  the 
singing  and  allows  time  for  the  leader  to  recall  the  next  verse. 

2.  River  songs,  composed  of  single  lines  separated  by  a  barbarous  and 
unmeaning  chorus  and  sung  by  the  deck  hands  and  roustabouts  mainly  for 
the  howl. 

3.  Plantation  songs,  accompanying  the  mowers  at  harvest,  in  which  the 
strong  emphasis  of  rhythm  was  more  important  than  the  words. 

4.  Songs  of  longing;  dreamy,  sad  and  plaintive  airs  describing  the  most 
sorrowful  pictures  of  slave  life,  sung  in  the  dusk  when  returning  home  from 
the  day's  work. 

5.  Songs  of  mirth,  whose  origin  and  meaning,  in  most  cases  forgotten, 
were  preserved  for  the  jingle  of  rhyme  and  tune  and  sung  with  merry  laughter 
and  with  dancing  in  the  evening  by  the  cabin  fireside. 

6.  Descriptive  songs,  sung  in  chanting  style,  with  marked  emphasis  and 
the  prolongation  of  the  concluding  syllable  of  each  line.  One  of  these  songs, 
founded  upon  the  incidents  of  a  famous  horse  race,  became  almost  an  epidemic 
among  the  negroes  of  the  slave-holding  States. 

In  this  enumeration  there  is  a  significant  omission.  On 
the  plantations  where  Latin  influences  were  dominant,  in 
New  Orleans  and  the  urban  communities  of  the  Antilles, 
the  satirical  song  was  greatly  in  vogue.  It  might  be  said 
that  the  use  of  song  for  purposes  of  satire  cannot  be  said 
to  be  peculiar  to  any  one  race  or  people  or  time;  in  fact. 
Professor  Henry  T.  Fowler,  of  Brown  University,  in  his 
"History  of  the  Literature  of  Ancient  Israel,"*  intimates 

*  New  York:  The  Macmillan  Company,  1912,  page  15. 

f  140  1 


SATIRICAL  SONGS  OF  THE   CREOLES 

that  a  parallel  may  exist  between  the  **taunt  songs''  of 
primitive  peoples,  the  Israelitish  triumph  songs,  like  that 
recorded  in  Numbers,  xxi,  27-30,  the  Fescennine  verses 
of  the  early  Romans,  and  the  satirical  songs  of  the  negroes 
of  the  West  Indies.  Nevertheless,  there  is  scarcely  a 
doubt  in  my  mind  but  that  the  penchant  for  musical 
lampooning  which  is  marked  among  the  black  Creoles  of 
the  Antilles  is  more  a  survival  of  a  primitive  practice 
brought  by  their  ancestors  from  Africa  than  a  custom 
borrowed  from  their  masters.  What  was  borrowed  was 
the  occasion  which  gave  the  practice  license. 

This  was  the  carnival,  which  fact  explains  the  circum- 
stance that  the  Creole  songs  of  satire  are  much  more 
numerous  in  the  French  West  Indies  than  in  Louisiana. 
The  songs  are  not  only  more  numerous,  but  their  perform- 
ance is  more  public  and  more  malicious  in  intent.  The 
little  song  "Musieu  Bainjo"  (see  page  142),  melody  and 
words  of  which  came  from  a  Louisiana  plantation,  though 
not  wholly  devoid  of  satrical  sting,  is  chiefly  a  bit  of 
pleasantry  not  calculated  deeply  to  wound  the  sensibilities 
of  its  subject;  very  difl"erent  are  such  songs  as  "Loema 
tombe"  (see  page  147)  and  "Marie-Clemence"  (see  page 
148),  which  Mr.  Hearn  sent  me  from  Martinique.  The 
verse-form,  swinging  melodic  lilt  and  incisive  rhythm  of 
"Michie  Preval"  (see  page  152)  made  it  the  most  eff'ective 
vehicle  for  satire  which  Creole  folksong  has  ever  known,  and 
Mr.  Cable  says  that  for  generations  the  man  of  municipal 
politics  was  fortunate  who  escaped  entirely  a  lampooning 
set  to  its  air;  but  it  is  doubtful  if  even  Mr.  Preval,  cordially 
hated  as  he  was,  had  to  endure  such  cruel  and  spectacular 
public  castigation  as  the  creators  of  the  pillard  still  inflict 
on  the  victims  of  their  hatred.  These  songs  will  come  up 
for  detailed  consideration  presently,  but  first  it  may  be  well 
to  pursue  the  plan  which  I  have  followed  in  respect  of  the 
other  elements  of  Afro-American  folksong  and  point  out 
the  obvious  African  origin  of  this  satirical  element. 

In  many,  perhaps  in  the  majority  of  African  tribes, 
there  are  professional  minstrels  whose  social  status  now 
is  curiously  like  that  of  the  mountebanks,  actors  and  secular 

[  141  ] 


AFRO-AMERICAN    FOLKSONGS 


Musieu  Bainjo 


Voy-ez      ce    mu-let  -   la,     Mu-sieu  Bain-jo^       comme  il      est  in - 
Look  at    that  darkey  there,  Mister  Ban-jo,       Does- n't     he  put    on 


lentl 
airsl 


Cha-peau    sur   co  ^    te,     Mu-sieuBain-jo,         La  cairne  a      la 
Hat  cock'don  one    side,  Mister  Ban -jo,       Walking- -  stick  in 


main,  Mu-sieu  Bain-  Jo 
hand,  Mister    Ban  -  jo^ 


Botte    qui      fait«crin,    crin»,  Mu-sieu  Bain -jo; 
Boots  that    go  "crank,  crank'/  Mister  Ban  -  j  o ; 


^^ 


§^ 


rii"!^  I'  M  MP  BP  P  P  IF  MP  P  1^ 

^  Toy- 62     oe  na.let  -   li,    Mu-sieu  Bain-Jo,    Conuneil      est  m  •  so  -    lei 


he  put 


lent! 
airsl 


Words  and  melody  of  this  song  were  noted  on  a  plantation  in  St.  Charles  Parish,  Lotdsiana, 
and  first  printed  in  "Slave  Songs  of  the  United  States,"  the  editor  remarking  that  it  is  an 
"attempt  of  some  enterprising  negro  to  write  a  French  song."  The  particularly  propnlsive 
effect  of  the  African  "snap" at  the  beginning  Is  noteworthy.  The  translation,  printed  by  J^t. 
Cmble  in  the  "Century  Magazine?  is  used  with  his  permission  and  that  of  the  Century  Co.  In 
his  comment  on  the  song  Mr.  Cable  remarks:  "We  have  to  lose  the  saucy  double  meaning  be- 
tween mttUt  (mule)  and  mulatre  (mulatto)."  Arrangement  by  the  auihor. 


[    142    1 


SATIRICAL   SONGS  OF  THE   CREOLES 

musicians  in  Europe  a  few  centuries  ago.  That  these  black 
minstrels  are  not  "beggars  with  one  consent"  is  due  to  the 
fact  that  their  powers  of  improvization  are  so  great  and 
their  willingness  to  employ  them  to  mercenary  ends  so  well 
known  that  that  they  are  feared  as  well  as  hated,  and 
conciliated  in  the  manner  universal  by  those  who  can 
afford  to  do  it.  These  men,  who  are  called  Lashash  by 
the  Soudanese,  Nzangah  (a  term  also  applied  to  prosti- 
tutes) by  the  Niam-Niam,  griots,  or  guiriots,  in  Sene- 
gambia  and  Guinea,  and  guehues  in  West  Africa,  are  syco- 
phants attached  to  the  bodies  of  kings  and  chiefs,  for  whom 
they  exercise  bardic  functions.  They  are  extremely  sharp 
of  tongue  and  have  no  hesitation  in  putting  their  skill  to 
the  basest  of  uses.  Hence  it  comes  that  persons  near 
enough  to  the  sources  of  power  and  preferment  approach 
them  in  the  same  manner  in  which  supplicants  for  royal 
favor  have  approached  the  mistresses  of  kings  and  poten- 
tates in  civilized  countries  time  out  of  mind.  Moreover, 
as  their  shafts  are  as  much  dreaded  as  their  encomiums  are 
desired,  they  collect  as  much  tribute  for  what  they  withhold 
as  for  what  they  utter,  and  many  of  them  grow  rich. 
Thomas  Ashley,  in  a  book  of  travels  published  in  1745,* 
says  that  they  are  "reckoned  rich,  and  their  wives  have 
more  crystal  blue  stones  and  beads  about  them  than  the 
king's  wives."  But,  like  the  mediaeval  European  actors, 
jugglers  and  musicians,  they  are  not  recognized  as  repu- 
table; they  are  even  denied  the  rite  of  burial,  and  in  some 
places  their  dead  bodies  are  left  to  rot  in  hollow  trees. 

The  weapon  which  these  griots  use  against  those  whom 
they  wish  to  injure  is  satire,  and  this  species  of  poetical 
composition  is  a  feature  of  the  improvizations  of  the  blacks 
in  the  Antilles  to-day  and  long  has  been.  Bryan  Edwards 
says  in  his  history  of  the  English  colonies  in  the  West  Indies : 

Their  songs  are  commonly  impromptu,  and  there  are  among  them  indivi- 
duals who  resemble  the  improvisatori,  or  extempore  bards  of  Italy;  but  I 
cannot  say  much  for  their  poetry.  Their  tunes  in  general  are  cTiaracteristic 
of  their  national  manners;  those  of  the  Eboes  being  soft  and  languishing;  of  the 
Koromantyus,  heroick  and  martial.  At  the  same  time  there  is  observable  in 
most  of  them  a  predominant  melancholy,  which,  to  a  man  of  feeling,  is  some- 
times very  affecting. 

»  Cited  by  Engel. 

f   143   1 


AFRO-AMERICAN   FOLKSONGS 

At  their  merry  meetings  and  midnight  festivals,  they  are  not  without 
ballads  of  another  kind,  adapted  to  such  occasions,  and  here  they  give  full 
scope  to  a  talent  for  ridicule  which  is  exercised  not  only  against  each  other 
but  also,  not  infrequently,  at  the  expense  of  their  owner  or  employer;  but  most 
part  of  their  songs  at  these  places  are  fraught  with  obscene  ribaldry  and  ac- 
companied with  dances  in  the  highest  degree  licentious  and  wanton. 

That  was  in  the  eighteenth  century,  when  vast  numbers 
of  the  slaves  were  African  by  birth.  At  the  end  of  the 
nineteenth  century  Hearn  found  that  satire  was  still  a 
prominent  element  in  the  songs  of  the  black  people  of 
Martinique.  He  is  speaking  of  the  blanchisseuses,  hard 
at  work  early  in  the  morning  in  the  rushing  river  at  St. 
Pierre. 

The  air  grows  warmer;  the  sky  blue  takes  fire;  the  great  light  makes  joy 
for  the  washers;  they  shout  to  each  other  from  distance  to  distance,  jest, 
laugh,  sing.  Gusty  of  speech  these  women  are;  long  habit  of  calling  to  one 
another  through  the  roar  of  the  torrent  has  given  their  voices  a  singular 
sonority  and  force;  it  is  well  worth  while  to  hear  them  sing.  One  starts  the 
song,  the  next  one  joins  her;  then  another  and  another,  till  all  the  channel  rings 
with  the  melody  from  the  bridge  of  the  Jardin  des  Plantes  to  the  Pont-bois: 

"CV//,  moin  qui  te,  ka  lave. 

Passe,  raccommode; 

Y  te  n'ej  he  disoue, 

Ou  mette  moin  derho, 

Yche  moin  assous  bouas  moin; 

Laplie  te  ka  tombe — 

Lefan  moin  assous  tete  moin; 

Doudoux,  ou  m'abandonne; 

Moin  pa  ni  pesonne  pou  soigne  main.** 

("It  was  I  who  washed  and  ironed  and  mended;  at  9  o'clock  at  night  thou 
didst  put  me  out  of  doors,  with  my  child  in  my  arms;  the  rain  was  falling, 
with  my  poor  straw  mattress  upon  my  head!  Doudoux!  thou  dost  abandon 
me!  ...  I  have  none  to  care  for  me.").  ...  A  melancholy  chant — 
originally  a  carnival  improvisation  made  to  bring  public  shame  upon  the 
perpetrator  of  a  cruel  act;  but  it  contains  the  story  of  many  of  these  lives — 
the  story  of  industrious,  affectionate  women  temporarily  united  to  brutal 
and  worthless  men  in  a  country  where  legal  marriages  are  rare.  Half  of  the 
Creole  songs  which  I  was  able  to  collect  during  a  residence  of  nearly  two  years 
in  the  island  touch  upon  the  same  sad  theme. 

Of  the  carnival,  at  which  these  satirical  songs  spring 
up  like  poisonous  fungi,  Hearn  draws  a  vivid  picture,  pro- 
jecting it  with  terrible  dramatic  effect  against  an  account 
of  a  plague  of  smallpox.  There  is  a  last  masquerade  before 
Lent,  on  Ash  Wednesday — the  carnival  lasts  a  day  longer 
in  Martinique  than  anywhere  else.  Since  January  there 
has  been  dancing  every  day  in  the  streets  of  St.  Pierre; 
such  dancing  as  might  be  indulged  in,  presumably,  by 
decorous    persons;    but   in    the    country    districts   African 

[  144  1 


SATIRICAL  SONGS   OF  THE   CREOLES 

dances  have  been  danced — such  dances  as  the  city  never 
sees.  Nevertheless,  a  cloud  rests  upon  the  gayety  because 
La  VereiUj  a  terrible  and  unfamiliar  visitor  to  the  island, 
has  made  her  advent.  The  pestilence,  brought  from  Colon 
on  the  steamer  in  the  preceding  September,  has  now  begun 
to  sweep  St.  Pierre,  as  it  had  already  swept  Fort  de  France, 
as  by  a  wind  of  death.  Hundreds  are  dying,  but  there  must 
be  the  usual  procession  of  maskers,  mummers  and  merry- 
makers. Three  o'clock.  There  is  a  sound  of  drums.  The 
people  tumble  into  the  streets  and  crowd  into  the  public 
square: 

Simultaneously  from  north  and  south,  from  the  Mouillage  and  the  Fort, 
two  immense  bands  enter  the  Grande  Rue — the  great  dancing  societies 
these — the  Sans-Souci  and  the  Intrepides.  They  are  rivals;  they  are  the 
composers  and  singers  of  those  carnival  songs — cruel  satires  most  often,  of 
which  the  local  meaning  is  unintelligible  to  those  unacquainted  with  the  inci- 
dent inspiring  the  improvisation,  of  which  the  words  are  too  often  coarse  or 
obscene — whose  burden  will  be  caught  up  and  re-echoed  through  all  the  burghs 
of  the  island.  Vile  as  may  be  the  motive,  the  satire,  the  malice,  these  chants 
are  preserved  for  generations  by  the  singular  beauty  of  the  airs,  and  the  victim 
of  a  carnival  song  need  never  hope  that  his  failing  or  his  wrong  will  be  for- 
gotten; it  will  be  sung  long  after  he  is  in  his  grave. 

All  at  once  a  hush  comes  over  the  mob;  the  drums  stop 
and  the  maskers  scatter.  A  priest  in  his  vestments  passes 
by,  carrying  the  viaticum  to  some  victim  of  the  dreadful 
scourge.  "CVj^  Bon-Die  ka  passe^^ — "It  is  the  Good-God 
who  goes  by."  Then  the  merriment  goes  on.  Night 
falls.  The  maskers  crowd  into  the  ballrooms,  and  through 
the  black  streets  the  Devil  makes  his  last  carnival  round: 

By  the  gleam  of  the  old-fashioned  oil  lamps  hung  across  the  thoroughfares 
I  can  make  out  a  few  details  of  his  costume.  He  is  clad  in  red,  wears  a  hideous 
blood-colored  mask  and  a  cap  on  which  the  four  sides  are  formed  by  four 
looking-glasses,  the  whole  headdress  being  surmounted  by  a  red  lantern.  He 
has  a  white  wig  made  of  horsehair  to  make  him  look  weird  and  old — since  the 
Devil  is  older  than  the  world.  Down  the  street  he  comes,  leaping  nearly  his 
own  height,  chanting  words  without  human  significance  and  followed  by  some 
three  hundred  boys,  who  form  the  chorus  to  his  chant,  all  clapping  hands  to- 
gether and  giving  tongue  with  a  simultaneity  that  testifies  how  strongly  the 
sense  of  rhythm  enters  into  the  natural  musical  feeling  of  the  African — a 
feeling  powerful  enough  to  impose  itself  upon  all  Spanish-America  and  there 
create  the  unmistakable  characteristics  of  all  that  is  called  "creole  music." 

''Bimbolor 
*'Zimabolor 
*'Bimbolor 
*'Zimabolor 
*'Et  Zimbobr 
**Et  bolo-po!" 

[    145   1 


AFRO-AMERICAN   FOLKSONGS 

sing  the  Devil  and  his  chorus.  His  chant  is  cavernous,  abysmal — booms  from 
his  chest  like  the  sound  beaten  in  the  bottom  of  a  well.  ,  .  "Ti  manmaille- 
la,  baill  moin  lavoixl"  ("Give  me  voice,  little  folk,  give  me  voice")  And  all 
chant  after  him  in  a  chanting  like  the  rushing  of  many  waters  and  with  triple 
clapping  of  hands:  'Ti  manmailU-laf  baill  moin  lavoixP\  .  .  Then  he 
halts  before  a  dwelling  in  the  Rue  Peysette  and  thunders: 
**Eh!     Maries ans-dent!     Mi!  diabe-la  derho!'* 

That  is  evidently  a  piece  of  spite  work;  there  is  somebody  living  there 
against  whom  he  has  a  grudge.     .     . 

"Hey!  Marie-without-teeth!     Look!     The  Devil  is  outside!" 

And  the  chorus  catch  the  clew. 

Devil:     "Eh!     Maries  ans-dent!'* 

Chorus:     "  Maries  ans-dent!    Mi!    diabe-la  derho!** 

Devil:     "Eh!     Maries  ans-dent!'* 

Chorus:    "Maries ans-dent!    Mi!  diabe-la  der ho!** 

Devil:     "Ehl     Maries  ans-dent!**  etc. 

The  Devil  at  last  descends  to  the  main  street,  always  singing  the  same  song. 
I  follow  the  chorus  to  the  Savanna,  where  the  route  makes  for  the  new  bridge 
over  the  Roxelane,  to  mount  the  high  streets  of  the  old  quarter  of  the  Fort, 
and  the  chant  changes  as  they  cross  over: 

Devil:  "Oti  oue  diabe-la  passe  larivie?**  ("Where  did  you  see  the  Devil 
going  over  the  river?")  And  all  the  boys  repeat  the  words,  falling  into  another 
rhythm  with  perfect  regularity  and  ease:    "Oti  oue  diabe-la  passe  larivie?*' 


February  22d. 
Old  physicians  indeed  predicted  it,  but  who  believed  them.-* 


February  23d, 
A  coffin  passes,  balanced  on  the  heads  of  black  men.    It  holds  the  body  of 
Pascaline  Z.,  covered  with  quicklime. 

It  is  thus  that  the  satirical  songs  are  made  in  Martinique, 
thus  that  they  are  disseminated.  Latin  civilization  is  less 
cruel  to  primitive  social  institutions  than  Anglo-Saxon — 
less  repressive  and  many  times  more  receptive.  Some- 
times it  takes  away  little  and  gives  much,  as  it  has  done 
with  African  music  transplanted  to  its  new  environment. 
It  has  lent  the  charm  of  graceful  melody  to  help  make  the 
sting  of  Creole  satire  the  sharper;  but  through  the  white  ve- 
neer the  black  savagery  sometimes  comes  crashing  to  pro- 
claim its  mastery  in  servitude.  So  in  the  case  of  the  song 
"Loema  tombe";  so  also  in  "Marie-Clemence."  (See  p.  148.) 
The  latter  is  a  carnival  song  which,  if  Hearn  was  correctly 
informed,  was  only  four  years  old  when  he  sent  it  to 
me.  It  is  a  fine  illustration  of  that  sententious  dramaticism 
which  is  characteristic  of  folk-balladry  the  world  over — 
that  quick,  direct,  unprepared  appeal  to  the  imaginative 

\  146  1 


SATIRICAL   SONGS   OF  THE    CREOLES 


Loema  tombe 


Allegro  moderato 


Be/rain  continued  ad  lib,  growing  more  and  more  rapid 


Oua    di   moin  conm'   ^a:  Lo  -  e  ^  ma      torn   >     bet     Ou'a  di  moin  coiun' 


^i^  JJU  J   I* J  jijij' J'li^  iJ^J  J   Wji  i% 


ga:  Lo-e-ma  torn    -     bet  Oak  di  moin  comn'       ca:  Lo-e-ma  torn    -       be| 


A  pillard  (satirical  song)  from  Martinique,  collected  for  the  author  in  1887  by  Lafcadio 
Heam  and  published  by  him  in  the  appendix  to  his  book  "Two  Years  in  the  French  West  Indies" 
(Haider  &  Bros.,  1890).  Arrangement  by  Frank  van  der  Stucken.  Reprinted  by  permission  of 
Harper  &  Bros.-  In  sending  the  song  to  the  author  Mr.  Heam  wrote:  "'Lo^ma  tombe'  is  a  pil  - 
lard,  a  satirical  chorus  chanted  with  clapping  of  hands.  Loema  was  a  girl  who  lived  near  the 
Pont-Bas  and  affected  virtue.'It  was  learned  that  she  received  not  one  but  many  lovers.  Then 
the  women  came  and  sang:      (Sola)  You  little  children  there 

Who  live  by  the  riverside, 

You  tell  me  truly  this: 

Did  you  see  Lo^ma  fall? 
(Cho.)  Tell  me  truly  this :  Loema  faU  iad  lib^" 


I  147  1 


AFRO-AMERICAN   FOLKSONGS 


Marie-Clemence 


Andante 


p 

^v  A 

= 

1 P-  P  P  P 

Ma-rie-Clemence 

mau-di, 

La-mori 

fritt  U 

man.di, 

#=^ 

^ 

Fi 

=i. 

— h^ 

1       \.    1 

|-     \^ 

! 

**?  A 

? 

fe 

,_.| 

-I 

t^ 

i-i — 

^ 

» — 

^ 

#^ 

^^ 

=#=^ 

f##=F= 

^ 

— 1 — 

=tF^ 

— K K — F 

pn 

—m 

hFF=i 

Col  - : 

ier.choux  U 

^ ^ 

\ — 

man  . 

— .JL-i 

.    di, 

1 — 

1   ^^'     ^\i^     J 
Toutt  baffgaie    li 

mau 

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=1 

V'  '  i 

^    ^    i 

'. 

k=d 

L^ 

v 

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: — 

—J — 

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T^ff . 

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J^^ 

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T— 

=^ 

T- 

1 

[  148 


SATIRICAL  SONGS   OF    THE   CREOLES 


Col •  lier.chooz  li       maa  • .  di,  Toutt  bag^gaie  li      maa- dif         Ale!  — 


La^emoin,laguemoin,     laguemoin!  Moin  kene-ye     co   moin, 


Words  and  melody  from  Lafcadio  Hearn's  "Two  Years  in  the  French  West  Indies,"  for  which 
work  they  were  arranged  by  this  author.  They  were  written  down  by  a  bandmaster  in  Mar  - 
tiniqae.  In  transmitting  them  to  Mr.  Krehbiel  Blr.  Hearn  wrote: "'Marie. Clemence  is  a  carni. 
Tal  satire  composed  not  more  than  four  years  ago.  The  song  was  sung  to  torment  MarieXle. 
mence,  who  was  a  vender  of  cheap  cooked  food."  The  exclamation  'Aiel'  is  an  example  of  the 
yell  which  occurs  frequently  in  African  music.  The  words  mean:  "Marie-Clemence  is  cursed; 
cursed,  too,  is  her  fried  salt  codfish  (iamori/riti), her  gold  bead  necklace  (collier.choux), 
an  her  load"  Now  Marie  speaks:  '^AYel  Let  me  be,  or  I  shall  drown  myself  behiodyon  pile  of 
Tocksl  -    The  doo%  is  reprinted  by  permission  of  Harper  &  Bros. 


149 


AFRO-AMERICAN   FOLKSONGS 

comprehension  of  a  people  whose  life  is  fully  expressed 
in  the  song  of  its  own  creation.  Marie-Clemence  was  a 
Machanne  lapacotte,  a  vendor  of  cooked  food;  chiefly,  it 
would  seem  from  the  text,  of  salt  codfish  {lamori  fritt). 
Why  she  should  have  been  made  the  victim  of  popular 
hatred  I  do  not  know — perhaps  never  shall  know,  now 
that  the  ashes  of  La  Pelee  have  made  a  winding-sheet  for 
St.  Pierre;  but  one  day  the  devil  pointed  his  finger  at  the 
poor  woman  and  pronounced  her  codfish  accursed,  also 
her  gold-bead  necklace  (collier-choux)  and  everything  that 
she  carried  in  the  wooden  bowl  above  her  gay  madrasse. 
An  agony  of  pain  and  rage  bursts  out  in  the  African  ex- 
clamation "Aie!"  only  to  give  way  to  her  pitiful  plaint: 

Lague  moin,  lague  moin,  lague  moin! 
Moin  ke  neye  co  main, 
Enbas  gouos  pile  ouoche-la! 

("Let  me  be,  let  me  be,  let  me  be!  I  shall  drown  myself  behind  yon  pile 
of  rocks!") 

Sometimes  the  people  of  the  Antilles  do  not  wait  for  the 
coming  of  the  carnival  and  its  devil  to  punish  those  who 
have  fallen  under  their  displeasure.  The  custom  of  the 
pillard  prevails  in  Martinique  and  can  be  practised  at  any 
time.  Hearn  writes:  "Some  person  whom  it  is  deemed 
justifiable  or  safe  to  annoy  may  suddenly  find  himself 
followed  in  the  street  by  a  singing  chorus  of  several  hundred, 
all  clapping  their  hands  and  dancing  or  running  in  perfect 
time,  so  that  all  the  bare  feet  strike  the  ground  together. 
Or,  the  pillard  chorus  may  even  take  up  its  position  before 
the  residence  of  the  party  disliked  and  then  proceed  with 
its  performances."  The  song  "Loema  tombe"  (see  page 
147)  provides  an  illustration.  **Loema,"  wrote  Mr.  Hearn, 
in  sending  me  the  words  and  melody  of  the  song,  "was 
a  girl  who  lived  near  the  Pont-Bas  and  affected  virtue. 
It  was  learned  that  she  received  not  one  but  many  lovers* 
Then  the  women  came  and  sang: 

Solo:  You  little  children  there 

Who  live  by  the  riverside, 
Tell  me  truly  this: 
Did  you  see  Loema  fall? 

Chorus:  Tell  me  truly  this:  Loema  fall,  etc. 

f  ISO  1 


SATIRICAL  SONGS  OF  THE   CREOLES 

Local  tradition  in  New  Orleans  may  have  preserved  the 
date  of  the  incident  which  gave  rise  to  what  in  one  of  my 
notes  I  find  called  "Old  Boscoyo's  Song"  (see  page  152),  but 
it  has  not  got  into  my  records.  Mr.  Cable  calls  the  victim 
of  the  satire  "a  certain  Judge  Preval,"  and  old  residents 
of  New  Orleans  have  told  me  that  he  was  a  magistrate. 
If  so,  it  would  seem  that  he  not  only  gave  a  ball  which 
turned  out  to  be  a  very  disorderly  affair,  but  also  violated 
a  law  by  giving  it  without  a  license.  Many  of  the  dancers 
found  their  way  into  the  calaboose,  and  he  had  to  pay  a 
fine  for  his  transgression  and  live  in  popular  contumely 
ever  afterward.  From  various  sources  I  have  pieced  to- 
gether part  of  the  song  in  the  original,  and  in  the  translation 
have  included  several  stanzas  for  which  at  present  I  have 
only  the  English  version  in  an  old  letter  written  by  Hearn: 

Michie  Preval  li  donnin  gran  bal, 
Li  fe  neg*  paye  pou  sauter  in  pe. 

Dans  I'ecui  vie  la  yave  gran  gala, 
Mo  ere  soual  la  ye  te  bien  etonne. 

Michie  Preval  li  te  Capitaine  bal, 

Et  so  coche,  Louis  te  maitr'  ceremonie. 

Y'ave  de  negresse  belles  passe  maitresse, 
Qui  vole  belbel  dans  Tormoire  momselle. 

"Comment,  Sazou,  te  vole  mo  cuilotte?" 

"Non,  no  maitr*,  mo  di  vous  mo  zes  prend  bottes." 

Ala  maitr'  geole  li  trouve  si  drole, 
Li  dit:  "Moin  aussi  mo  fe  bal  ici." 

Ye  prend  maitr'  Preval  ye  mette  li  prison, 
Pasque  li  donnin  bal  pou  vole  nous  I'arzan. 

Monsieur  Preval  gave  a  big  ball;  he  made  the  darkies  pay  for  their  little  hop. 

The  grand  gala  took  place  in  the  stable;  I  fancy  the  horses  were  greatly 
amazed. 

M.  Preval  was  Captain  of  the  ball;  his  coachman,  Louis,  was  Master  of 
Ceremonies. 

(He  gave  a  supper  to  regale  the  darkies;  his  old  music  was  enough  to  give 
one  the  colic!) 

(Then  the  old  Jackass  came  in  to  dance;  danced  precisely  as  he  reared,  on 
his  hind  legs.) 

There  were  negresses  there  prettier  than  their  mistresses;  they  had  stolen 
all  manner  of  fine  things  from  the  wardrobes  of  their  young  mistresses. 

(Black  and  white  both  danced  the  bamboula;  never  again  will  you  see 
such  a  fine  time.) 

(Nancy  Latiche  (?)  to  fill  out  her  stockings  put  in  the  false  calves  of  her 
madame.) 

"How,  now,  Sazou,  you  stole  my  trousers.?"  "No,  my  master,  I  took  only 
your  boots." 

(And  a  little  Miss  cried  out:  "See  here,  you  negress,  you  stole  my  dress.") 

r  isi  1 


AFRO-AMERICAN   FOLKSONGS 


Michie  Preval 


Allegro  moderato 


A  satirieal  soo^.  Word*  (one  stanza  only)  from  Mr.  Macrum's  collection,  by  permission  of 
the  Century  Co.;  melody  written  down  by  the  author  at  oae  of  Mr.  Cabled  readingsj  arrange- 
ment by  Mr.  JohnVaoBroekhOTen. 


[  152 


SATIRICAL   SONGS   OF   THE    CREOLES 

It  all  seemed  very  droll  to  the  keeper  of  the  jail;  he  said,  "I'll  get  up  a  dance 
(of  another  sort)  for  you  here." 

(At  Mr.  Preval's,  in  Hospital  street,  the  darkies  had  to  pay  for  their  little 
hop.) 

He  took  M.  Preval  and  put  him  in  the  lock-up,  because  he  gave  a  ball  to 
steal  our  money. 

(Poor  M.  Prevail  I  guess  he  feels  pretty  sick;  he'll  give  no  more  balls  in 
Hospital  street.) 

(He  had  to  pay  SlOO  and  had  a  pretty  time  finding  the  money.) 

(He  said:  "Here's  an  end  of  that;  no  more  balls  without  a  permit.") 


In  conclusion,  a  word  on  the  value  of  these  Afro-Ameri- 
can folksongs  as  artistic  material  and  their  possible  con- 
tribution to  a  national  American  school  of  music.  In  a 
large  sense  the  value  of  a  musical  theme  is  wholly  indepen- 
dent of  its  origin.  But  for  a  century  past  national  schools 
have  been  founded  on  folksongs,  and  it  is  more  than  likely, 
in  spite  of  the  present  tendency  toward  "impressionism" 
and  other  aesthetic  aberrations,  that  composers  will  con- 
tinue to  seek  inspiration  at  its  source.  The  songs  which 
I  have  attempted  to  study  are  not  only  American  because 
they  are  products  of  a  people  who  have  long  been  an 
integral  part  of  the  population  of  America,  but  also  be- 
cause they  speak  an  idiom  which,  no  matter  what  its 
origin,  Americans  have  instinctively  liked  from  the  begin- 
ning and  have  never  liked  more  than  now.  On  this  point 
Dr.  Dvorak,  one  of  the  world's  greatest  nationalists,  is 
entitled  to  speak  with  authority.  In  an  essay  on  "Music 
in  America,"  which  was  printed  in  "The  Century  Maga- 
zine" for  February,  1895,  he  said: 

"A  while  ago  I  suggested  that  inspiration  for  truly  national  music  might 
be  derived  from  the  negro  melodies  or  Indian  chants.  I  was  led  to  take  this 
view  partly  by  the  fact  that  the  so-called  plantation  songs  are  indeed  the  most 
striking  and  appealing  melodies  that  have  been  found  on  this  side  of  the  water, 
but  largely  by  observation  that  this  seems  to  be  recognized,  though  often 
unconsciously,  by  most  Americans.  All  races  have  their  distinctive  national 
songs,  which  they  at  once  recognize  as  their  own  even  if  they  have  never 
heard  them  before.  .  .  It  is  a  proper  question  to  ask,  What  songs,  then, 
belong  to  the  American  and  appeal  more  strikingly  to  him  than  any  others.^ 
What  melody  would  stop  him  on  the  street  if  he  were  in  a  strange  land,  and 
make  the  home  feeling  well  up  within  him,  no  matter  how  hardened  he  might 
be,  or  how  wretchedly  the  tune  were  played.?  Their  number,  to  be  sure,  seems 
to  be  limited.  The  most  potent,  as  well  as  the  most  beautiful  among  them,  ac- 
cording to  my  estimation,  are  certain  of  the  so-called  plantation  melodies 
and  slave  songs,  all  of  which  are  distinguished  by  unusual  and  subtle  har- 
monies, the  thing  which  I  have  found  in  no  other  songs  but  those  of  Scotland 
and  Ireland." 

[  153  1 


AFRO-AMERICAN   FOLKSONGS 

Dr.  Dvorak's  contention  that  material  for  music  in  the 
highest  artistic  forms  might  be  found  in  the  songs  of  the 
American  negroes,  which  was  derided  by  quite  a  number 
of  American  musicians,  was  long  ago  present  in  the  appre- 
ciative and  discriminating  mind  of  Mrs.  Kemble,  who,  in  her 
Hfe  on  a  Georgian  plantation,  wished  that  some  great 
composer  might  hear  the  "semi-savage''  performances  of 
the  slaves,  and  said:  "With  a  very  little  skilful  adaptation 
and  instrumentation  I  think  one  or  two  barbaric  chants 
and  choruses  might  be  evoked  from  them  that  would  make 
the  fortunes  of  an  opera."  The  opera  is  not  yet  forth- 
coming, but  Dr.  Dvorak's  "From  the  New  World,"  which 
drew  its  inspiration  from  Afro-American  songs,  is  the  most 
popular  of  his  symphonies,  and  his  American  quartet  has 
figured  on  the  programmes  of  the  Kneisel  Quartet  oftener 
than  any  other  work  in  its  repertory. 

In  the  sense  which  seems  to  be  playing  hide  and  seek 
in  the  minds  of  the  critics  and  musicians  who  object  to 
the  American  label,  there  is  no  American  music  and  can 
be  none:  Every  element  of  our  population  must  have  its 
own  characteristic  musical  expression,  and  no  one  element 
can  set  up  to  be  more  American  than  another.  But  sup- 
pose the  time  come  when  the  work  of  amalgamation  shall 
be  complete  and  the  fully,  evolved  American  people  have 
developed  a  fondness  for  certain  peculiarities  of  melody 
and  rhythm,  which  fondness  in  turn  shall  disclose  itself  in 
a  decided  predilection  for  compositions  in  which  those  pe- 
culiarities have  been  utilized;  will  that  music  be  American.^ 
Will  it  be  racy  of  the  soil.^  Will  such  compositions  be 
better  entitled  to  be  called  American  than  the  music  of 
Dr.  Dvorak,  which  employs  the  same  elements,  but  con- 
fesses that  it  borrows  them  from  the  songs  of  the  Southern 
negroes?  The  songs  are  folksongs  in  the  truest  sense; 
that  is,  they  are  the  songs  of  a  folk,  created  by  a  folk, 
giving  voice  to  the  emotional  life  of  a  folk;  for  which  life 
America  is  responsible.  They  are  beautiful  songs,  and 
Dr.  Dvorak  has  shown  that  they  can  furnish  the  inspira- 
tion for  symphonic  material  to  the  composer  who  knows 
how  to  employ  it.     To  use  this  material  most  effectively 

[  154  1 


SATIRICAL   SONGS  OF  THE   CREOLES 

it  is  necessary  to  catch  something  of  the  spirit  of  the  peo- 
ple to  whom  It  is,  or  at  least  it  seems,  idiomatic.  A  na- 
tive-born American  ought  to  be  able  to  do  this  quicker 
and  better  than  a  foreigner,  but  he  will  not  be  able  to  do 
it  at  all  unless  he  have  the  gift  of  transmuting  whatever 
he  sees  or  feels  into  music;  if  he  have  it  not,  he  will  not 
write  music  at  all;  he  might  as  well  be  a  Hottentot  as  an 
American. 

Though  it  has  been  charged  against  me,  by  intimation 
at  least,  it  has  never  occurred  to  me  in  the  articles  which  I 
have  written  on  the  subject  to  claim  that  with  his  sympho- 
ny Dr.  Dvorak  founded  a  national  school  of  composition. 
The  only  thing  that  I  have  urged  in  the  matter  is,  that  he 
has  shown  that  there  are  the  same  possibilities  latent  in 
the  folksongs  which  have  grown  up  in  America  as  in  the 
folksongs  of  other  peoples.  These  folksongs  are  accom- 
plished facts.  They  will  not  be  added  to,  for  the  reason  that 
their  creators  have  outgrown  the  conditions  which  alone 
made  them  possible.  It  is  inconceivable  that  America  shall 
add  to  her  store  of  folksongs.  Whatever  characteristics  of 
scales  or  rhythm  the  possible  future  American  school  of  com- 
position is  to  have  must,  therefore,  be  derived  from  the 
songs  which  are  now  existent.  Only  a  small  fraction  of 
these  songs  have  been  written  down,  and  to  those  which 
have  been  preserved  the  scientific  method  has  not  yet  fully 
been  applied.  My  effort,  as  I  have  confessed,  is  tentative. 
It  ought  to  be  looked  upon  as  a  privilege,  if  not  a  duty,  to 
save  them,  and  the  best  equipped  man  in  the  world  to  do 
this,  and  afterward  to  utilize  the  material  in  the  manner 
suggested  by  Dr.  Dvorak,  ought  to  be  the  American  com- 
poser. Musicians  have  never  been  so  conscious  as  now 
of  the  value  of  folksong  elements.  Music  is  seeking  new 
vehicles  of  expression,  and  is  seeking  them  where  they  are 
most  sure  to  be  found — In  the  field  of  the  folksong.  We 
have  such  a  field;  it  is  rich,  and  should  be  cultivated. 


155 


APPENDIX 


Weeping  Mary 


Moderato 


^  ^u'  i^  J  I ;)  i)  J)  ^/i  J  J  I J  j-j  J 


weep  -  ing-_      Ma  -   ry 
If  there's    an  -  j  -  bod  -  J     here   like    I  pray  -  ing^.     Sam  -  uel 


doubt -ingi.     Thom-as 


:■! 


Cadi    up -on  your  Je-sus,     and      Hell  draw  nig-h.  O, grlo- ry, 


A  "fpirftaal"  from  Boyle  Co.Keatacky.  ooted  by  Miss  Mildred  J.  HiU,  of  Loalsville;  harmoni- 
xatlon  by  Heary  Holdea  Hoss,  of.  New  York.  A  strikiac  example  of  the  major  sixth  in  a  minor 
■lelody. 


[157] 


AFRO-AMERICAN   FOLKSONGS 


Some  Come  Cripple 

Allegro  con  spirito 


{Some  come  cripple    and  some  come  lame, ) 

Some  come  cripple    and  some  come  lame;  I 

( Some  come  praj-in'  and  some  come  seek>  > 

*Some  come  sor-rin'  and  some  come  weep;l 


Hail    the  crowitof  the 


Hail    the  crown  of  the 


A^ahoat"  soj^;  from  Boyle  Co.,  Kentacky,  collected  for  the  aathor  by  Miss  Bfildred  J.  Hilt, 
of  Loaisrille.  Arranged  for  this  poblicatioa  by  Arthur  Mees.  The  old  woman,  an  ex.  slave, 
who  saa;  it  for  Miss  Hill  had  forgotten  the  second  line  of  the  first  stansa,  and  repeated  the 
first  as  indicated. 


158 


APPENDIX 


Neve*  a  Man  speak  like  this  Man 

("O!  look- a  death") 

Andante 

Oh!    look,  a        death,  look- a    death,  She's   trav'- lia»    thro'   the 


Ian*,     She's  trav*-  lin*    thro'    the      lanV     For     I      nev-  e'     sawhr  a 


-      ^       .    ,  ,.,     ^.  .  I     wish  ole  Sa-tan would  be  still,    I 

man  for  to  speak  like  this   man.       ^^,    ^^^    ^^  ^^  ^  Mas- ter's  will]    | 


speak  like      this       man. 
speak  like      this       man. 


Words  and  melody  from  "Bahama  Songs  and  Stories','  by  Charles  L.  Edwards,  Ph.  D.,pnb. 
lished  for  the  American  Folk- Lore  Society  by  Houghton,  Biifflin  &  Co.,  Boston.  «a4  reprint- 
ed by  permission.  The  arrangement  by  H.  T.  Burleigh. 

"Then  came  the  officers  to  the  chief  priests  and  Pharisees;  and  they  said  onto  them.  Why 
bavv'ye  not  brought  bin?  The  officers  answered,  Never  aaa  spake  like  tiUs  maa!*  St.  Johft 
▼iif  4».4t. 


[159  1 


AFRO-AMERICAN   FOLKSONGS 


Jesus  Heal'de  Sick 


Andante  eon  moto 


\pt   ' 

1*  ^'P  1 

Je-sus 

heal'       de 

1  J>   J             1 

ij  tl  a  jTj     ^ 

1 

,JM  7m 

^'*ff' 

r^ 

tr- 

f-r- 

f^ 

[^Hi      - 

sick,  g^ye     sight  to         de      blin,      An   e       made     de      crip -pie      to 


[  160 


APPENDIX 


low!  Ajf  'e     g-ave  them  coxn-znisshun    to     fly,    Bro<tlie   Lass-ras,  An'  'e 


f^=¥^ 

K     J        N    I 

F^pq 

Y— 

A 

A 

1  k    1    hi 

ve  them  com-  missht 

m    to 

fly,    S 

i-mon 

Pe-ter,  An'  'e    gave  them  com- 

Jg^tf        h       J.    = 

J)  J     N 

1    n 

r-n     r-^ 

h    J. 

5P — J^-*^ 

_, 1 

_J ji__d — 

^-* — 

Wonls  sad  melody  from''Bahama  Soa^  and  Stories"  by  Charles  L.  Bdwa(ds,Fh.0^p«blia3ied 
for  the  American  Folh-Lore  Society  by  Hoo^htoa.  UifrUn  &  Co.  and  repriatwl  by  permisaiofl. 
The  arraagvmeat  made  for  ttis  work  kf  &T.  Bmrleigh. 


[  161  ] 


AFRO-AMERICAN   FOLKSONGS 


Opon  de  Rock 


Andante  cantabile 

Bro.the*     Andrew,  whey  jou    bin  when  de     dry  wea«>the'    come? 


Bin- a  on    de    rock,  says,  wadt-in'   for    rain.  Bro>tlie*     Andrew, wbiy you 


bin  when  de  dry  weathe'    come?  Bin  on  de  rock,  says,  walt-in*  for  rain. 

■Ir     J     J-nii  J:     *■  *— ^ 


^ 


i'  r  II'  im'i  I  '^ 


162 


APPENDIX 


Op-oa 

de 

k      1 

rock, 

ip  r    p 

op-  oa        de 

1  >r  1      w=^ 

rock, 

op. 

on        de 

-J — in 

,_} — __ — :^ 

J 

\f^     J'  \ 
^— J — 

f-" 

r 

=^T=H 

=;ib 

—J — 

■^^u 

i^l 

•*< 

'r          ' 

^=M 

^ 

1 

rock       let     de         wa-ter     ton  out.         Op- on     de      rode, 


Words  and  i&elody  from  "Bahama  Songs  and  Stories'/ by  Charles  L- Edwards,  Ph.  D.*pablished 
for  the  American  Folk-Lore  Society  by  Hoaghton,  Miff  Un  &  Co;  and  reprinted  by  permission. 
The  arrangement  made  for  this  work  by  H.  T- Burleigh. 


[163  ] 


AFRO-AMERICAN   FOLKSONGS 


Ten.  I 

Ten.  II 


M 


Nobody  Knows  the  Trouble  I  See 


Adag^io,  sempre  rubato 


^ 


MP   M' 


^ 


^ 


No4>od- 7  knows  the  trouble     I      see,  Lord,  Nobod-y  knows  the 


^ 

||tf    >  i^ 

&. 

1^^  >  j^  I  h'^i^^  .^  A 1 

^ 

trott-ble 

1 

I 

see; 

No-bod-y  knows  the    trou-ble     I      see,  Lord, 

1  >  >  ;^  A  J)i  Ji  ^  ;.  ji  A  1 

^=^ 

4 

y= 

'pg  P   g  p-  g'ij/  ^  p-  ' 

No-bod-y  knows  like     Je  -  sus.     Brothers,  will  you    pray    for     me, 


pray     for     me 

;>  I  ^ 


,     And     help     me      to 


o    drive   old        Sa  -  tan     a  -  way? 


decTfge, 


1 ; ;  i  i'^i  n-n-4U4 


1 — p  p  p  p  '  p — p-  ^  p  p 

Arranged  for  men's  voices  by  Axthor  Mees  for  the  Mendelssohn  Glee  Clob  of  New  York.  Printed 
here  by  permission. 


f  164 


Ttn.l 
Ttn.  11 


Baas  I 
Bast  II 


APPENDIX 

Roll,Jordan,Roll 


1.  My  brudder*sittin*  on  de   tree  ob  life, 


march,  O  march,  O     march  de      an-g^el    marchIO,    my    soul,  a-  rise   ia 


J     r        p       ,  ■  ^ 

•"Parson  Fuller"  "Deacon  Henshaw,"  "Brtxdder  Mosey,"  "Massa  Linkuml*-  etc. 
2.  Little  chil'en,  learn  to  fear  de  Lord,  i     3.  O,  let  no  false  nor  spiteful  Word 
And  let  your  days  be  long*;  Be  foimd  upon  your  tongue; 

Roll,  Jordan,  etc.  >  Roll,  Jordan,  etc. 


Words  and  melody  from  "Slare  Son^  of  the  United  States!'  Arranged  for  men's  Toices  by 
Arthtir  Jfees  for  the  Mendelssohn  Qlee  Club  of  New  York,  and  published  here  by  paradcsioa 
It  is  an  interesting^  ezaunple  of  the  use  of  the  flat  serenth 


[165] 


AFRO-AMERICAN  FOLKSONGS 


Ma  mourri 


.Allegretto 


Mo      con-nin,     zins       zens,        ma   moor  -  ri, 
Well      I    know;youngr  men,        I    must    die, 


oui,      'no  .  cent, 
yes,     era  -  zy. 


ma  mour- ri;        Mo   con-nin,   zins    zens,    ma  moor- ri    'no -cent,   oui,  >BO-eeBt, 
I  must  die;    Well    I  know.young- men,     I  must»  cra-zy,  die,  yes,  cra.zy, 


ma    mour.ri. 
I   must    die. 


Ehhht      Pon'  la    belle    La-yotte       ma  mour.ri  *no.oeat, 
Ehhhl     For  the  fair    La-yotte       I.  must   era- zy  die, 


[  166 


APPENDIX 


oni,     'DO- cent,     ma  moor- ri.  Mo    con-nin,   zins    zens,    ma  mour-ri, 

yes,    cra..zy,       I   must    die.    Well    I  know, young-men,     I  must    die. 


ma   mour  .  ri     'no  -  cent,       ma  mour  -  ri      pou*    la         belle      La-7otte> 
I    must,    era  -  zy,    die,         I   must     die    for     the       fair      La>ybttef 


^Words  and  mosic  from  tlie"C6ntiiry  Mag^ziae*'of  Febniary,  1886,  where  credit  for  the  arr«flg» 
meat  was  inadvertently  giren  to  the  atfthor;  it  belongs  to  JohnVanBroekhovtti.  The  transla* 
tion  is  Mr.  Cable's. 


[167] 


AFRO-AMERICAN    FOLKSONGS 


Martinique  Love-Song 


Poco  lento  /^  ^ 


Alleffretto 


Allegretto 


B^ 

#^=^ 

— ♦ — > — i" 

P^ 

r=^ 

— 1 — 

H 

-^-qi 

t 

«(5a_ 

=4= 

qui 

—m — 

li?» 

^^1— 

^  ^  r 

«0u   - 

4= 

ve 

la 

po 

-^ 

te        ba 

1 1 — 

-  rJ  t   — n 
moin.» 

—  ^=1 

w 

'   ^  f 

=4=== 

J- 

3 — 

■• 

— \  — 

^ 

,14  r  r 

=P^ 

"    ft    w 

n--^.| 

=±.=^^ 

H 

pZ: 

t>  1/*^      ' 

— 1 

P  r 

M     _     ^ 

y= 



-5 

-^ 

=^^ 

LrJ 

L=J 

To,  to,  to! 

Ca  qui  la? 
C^est  moin-menme  rannioa, 
Oav6  la  pote  ba  moii/. 

To,  to,  to! 

^a  qui  la? 
C'est  moin-menme  Tanmou, 
La  plie  ka  mouille  moin. 

To,  to,  to! 

^a  qui  la? 
C'est  moin-menme  I'anmou, 
Qui  ka  ba  on  rhe  moin! 


Tap,  tap,  tap! 

Who  taps  there? 
'Tis  my  own  self,  love, 
Open  the  door  for  me. 

Tap,  tap,  tap! 

Who  taps  there? 
'Tis  my  own  self,  love, 
The  rain  is  wetting-  me. 

Tap,  tap,  tap! 

Who  taps  there? 
'Tis  my  own  self,  love, 
Who  grive  my  heart  to  thee! 


Collected  for  the  author  by  Laf  cadio  Hearn,  who  says  of  it  in  his  "Two  Years  in  the  French 
West  Indies": '"To,  to,  to'  is  very  old-  dates  back,  perhaps,  to  the  time  of  the  beUts-affranddes 
It  is  seldom  song  now  except  by  survivors  of  the  old  regime:  the  sincerity  and  tenderness  of 
the  emotion  that  inspired  it-  the  old  sweetness  of  heart  and  simplicity  of  thoughts  are  pass- 
ing  for  ever  away."  The  arrangement  was  made  by  Frank  vun  der  Stncken  and  is  here  reprinted 
hy  permission  of  Harper  &  Bros. 


168  ] 


APPENDIX 


Emgann  Sant-Kast 

(The  Battle  of  St.  Cast) 


Pa   vann  kous  -  ket,      enn.  noz  vez       all,        E        kle  -  viz 

Nigbt  fell  a  .   round  me,     deep    in  my     sleep      I      heard  the 


son       ar      dhom  •  ba     .      hal, 
tram- pet     loud     re     •     peat, 


Son      ar     c^orn  .  bu  -  hal. 
Thro*  hall    and       for  •   est 


e       ko  •  at  .  sal: 
rang*  the.     call: 


Ho!     Sao-zon!     Sao  -  zon!-     Sao  •  zon      fall!" 
"Curs'd  be    the      Sajt»ons,_    Sax-ons      alll" 


Animato 


Rhyvelgyrch  Cadpen  Morgan 

(Captain  Morgan's  March) 


Rhwym  wrth 

Forth  to 

Mwg  y 

Let  not 


dy     wre  -  gys, 

the     bat  .  tie! 

pen-  tref  ydd 

the     sun  -  light 


gledd  -  yf  gwyn      dy      dad; 

on  -  ward  to        the     fight! 

gjt  _    yd  gyd   -1   a'r    gwynt, 

o'er     our  path  -  way  close, 


At  yni  fy   mach  -  geml 

Swift  as  the    ea  -  gle 

Draw  dy  gy-mrod  .  yr 

Tin  we  o'er-throw  our 


tros     dy  wlad.  Sych  dy  ddag-rau, 

in       his  flight!  Strong*  as  yon  -  der 

ant     yn  grynt.  Wrth  dy  fw  .   a, 

Sax- on  foes.  Be  ye  read  •  y. 


^  '  if     gjt-rwj    naid,Qwrando'r  saeth-ai^  su  .  o  fel  seirph  di-baid; 

foaa»4ng'—        tide,  Rush  -    ing'_      down-  the  moun- tain-side* 

bjmwiiaHhfraidiTn    gref,   Cof  -  ia    am    ^   dad,  f el  ba    f ar  -  w     ef! 

•wontand.       spear,        Poor,      up     .     oo—*  the  spoil- er   newrl 


[  169 


INDEX 


Acadian  Boat-Song,  51,  54. 

Adelelmo,  59. 

African  travellers,  musically  illiterate, 
13;  idioms  in  American  folksongs, 
22;  music,  56  et  seq.;  music  charac- 
terized, 60;  recitative  in,  100; 
languages,  survival  of  words  from, 
128. 

Agwas,  57. 

Aida,  Oriental  melodies  from,  87. 

Ain't  I  glad  I  got  out  of  the  WildernesSy 
15. 

Albertini,  59. 

Alia  zoppa,  94. 

Allen,  William  Francis,  vi,  29,32,  34, 
43,81,97,  111,  129. 

American  Folk-Lore  Society,  viii; 
Indian  music,  51. 

Americans,  what  are  they?,  26. 

And  I  y garde  from  heaven  to-day,  103. 

Aridas,  57. 

Ashantee  music,  61. 

Ashley,  Thomas,  quoted,  143. 

Asra,  Der,  song  by  Rubinstein,  87. 

Atlantic  Monthly,  quoted,  43. 

Aurore  Pradere^  123. 

Awassas,  57. 

Babouille,  dance,  1 16. 

Bach,  Sonata  in  E,  15. 

Bacon,     Theodore,     "Some     Breton 

Folksongs,"  9. 
Balatpi,  songs  of  the,  101. 
Balboa,  his  ships  built  by  negroes,  26. 
Ballets,  16. 
Baltimore  Gals,  15. 
Bamboula,  dance,  116. 
Barzaz-Breiz,  9. 
Battle-Cry  of  Freedom,  17,  23. 
Bechuanas,  60. 
Bede,  the  Venerable,  36. 
Beethoven,  use  of  the  major  sixth 

in  minor,  81. 
Bele,  dance,  66,  116. 
Bell  da  Ring,  49. 
Benguin,  dance,  116. 
Bescherelle,  quoted,  116. 
Biblical  allusions  in  songs,  45. 
Blanchisseuses   of    St.    Pierre,    their 

songs,  144. 
Bongo  negroes,  songs  and  dances  of, 

44,  113. 
Bornou,  song  in  praise  of  the  Sultan 

of,  102. 
Bouene,  dance,  116. 
Bowditch,  "Mission  from  Cape  Coast 

Castle  to  Ashantee,"  60,  62. 
Brittany,  folksongs  of,  9. 
Bryant's  Minstrels,  33. 


Buchner,  Max,  "Kamenin,"  quoted, 
67. 

Buffalo  Gals,  15. 

Bulgarians,  folksongs  of  the,  7. 

Burial  customs  of  the  Africans  and 
slaves,   103  et  seq. 

Burleigh,  Henry  T.,  his  help  ac- 
knowledged, viii. 

Burney,  Dr.  Charles,  quoted,  72. 

Burtchell,  W.  T.,  "Travels  in  the  In- 
terior of  Africa,"  quoted,  60. 

Burton,  Richard  F.,  "Lake  Regions 
of  Central  Africa,"  quoted,  44,  57, 
101. 

Busch,  Moritz,  "Wanderungen  zwi- 
schen  Hudson  und  Mississippi," 
quoted,  12. 

Cable,  George  W.,  credited  and 
quoted,  viii,  38,  40,  138,  141. 

Calhoun  School  Collection  of  Plan- 
tation Songs,  quoted,  43,  71,  82,  87. 

Calinda  {and  Caleinda),  a  dance,  66, 
67,  116. 

Cameron,  Verney  Lovett,  "Across 
Africa,"  quoted,  101,  113. 

Camptown  Races,  16. 

Canada,  folksongs  of,  vi,  22. 

Can't  stay  behind,  49. 

Capello  and  Ivens,  "From  Benguela 
to  the  Territory  of  Yucca,  "quoted, 
113. 

Captain  Morgan^s  Marchy  10,  169. 

Carnival  celebration  and  songs  in 
Louisiana  and  the  French  West 
Indies,  141  et  seq, 

Caroline,  138,  139. 

Cassuto,  121. 

Cata  {or  Chata),  a  dance,  116. 

Century  Company  and  Magazine, 
credited  and  quoted,  viii,  30,  38, 
40,  138,  152. 

Chad  wick,  George  W.,  writes  Ameri- 
can music,  V. 

Charleston  Gals,  15. 

China,  use  of  pentatonic  scale  in  its 
music,  7;  a  missionary's  experience 
with  hymns,  76. 

Christy's  Minstrels,  12,  15. 

Classification  of  Slave  Songs,  140. 

Coleridge-Taylor,  Samuel,  composer, 
44,  47,  59,  73. 

Collections  of  Slave  Songs,  42,  43. 

Columbus,  negroes  come  with  him  to 
America,  26. 

Combat  de  Saint-Cast,  9,  169. 

Come  tremble-ing  downy  84,  85,  87. 

Congo,  a  dance,  126. 

Congos,  their  music,  57. 


1171  ] 


lNDEX--ContinMed 


Continental  Monthly,  quoted,  43. 

Coon  songs,  2,  16. 

Cotolies,  57. 

Counjai    (or    Counjaille),    a    dance, 

116  et  srq. 
Creole,    meaning   of  the   term,    134; 

grammar  of  the  patois,  127  ei  seq.; 

songs  of,  35,  37,  38  et  seq.;  use  of 

satire,  140. 
CrioU  candjo,  116,  118. 
Cruelty  to  slaves,  25. 
Cui,  Cesar,  on  Russian  folksongs,  7. 

Dahomans,  60,  61,  67,  77,  79;  death 
customs  of,  108;  dances  of,  133, 

Dances  of  the  American  negroes,  95, 
112  et  seq. 

Dandy  Jim  of  Caroline,  16. 

Daudet,  Alphonse,  his  use  of  a  Creole 
song,   135. 

Day,  Charles  William,  "Five  Years' 
Residence  in  the  West  Indies," 
quoted,  12. 

Denham  and  Clapperton,  "Narra- 
tive of  Travels  in  Northern  and 
Central  Africa,"  quoted,  102. 

Denmark,  folksongs  of,  5. 

Dese  all  my  fader's  children,  108. 

Dessau  mouillage,  etc.,  a  Martinique 
dance,  125,  126. 

Devil,  in  Carnival  dances  of  Martini- 
que, 145. 

Devil  songs,  16,  34. 

Dig  my  Grave,  103,  104. 

Dimitry,  Alexander,  40. 

Dixie,  33. 

Done  tvid  driber's  drihin\  17,  19. 

Drums  and  drumming,  61,  65;  as 
signals,  65;  in  Martinique,  66;  in 
Unyanebe,  67;  in  New  Orleans,  67; 
in  Voodoo,  Congo  and  Calinda 
dances,  67;  in  Kamerun,  67;  in 
Bashilonga,  67. 

Du  Bois,  W.  E.  Burghardt,  "The 
Souls  of  Black  Folk,"  quoted,  vi,  17; 
on  the  negro  in  America,   27;  43. 

Du  Chaillu,  Paul  B.,  "Explorations 
and  Adventures  in  Equatorial 
.■\frica,"  quoted,  106. 

Dvorak,  Antonin,  use  of  American 
idioms,  iv;  153  et  seq. 

Edwards,  Bryan,  "The  History,  Civil 
and  Commercial,  of  the  British 
Colonies  in  the  West  Indies," 
quoted,   106,   107. 

Edwards,  Charles  L.,  36;  "Bahama 
Songs  and  Stories,"  43,  106,  107, 
128,  140. 


Ein     Ldmmlein    geht    und    tragi    die 

Schuld,  58. 
Emancipation,    songs   of,    17   et   seq. 
Emgann  Sant-Kast,  169. 
Emmet,  Dan,  33. 
Endemann,  K.,  "Mittheilungen  uber 

die  Sotho-Neger,"  106. 
Engel,    Carl,    "Introduction    to    the 

Study  of  National  Music,"  quoted, 

5,  44,  77,  87,  102,  143. 
Exposure  of  slaves,  24. 

Fantees,  music  of,  62. 

Father  Abraham,  87,  90. 

Feedas,  57. 

Fenner,  Thomas  P.,  42,  71. 

Fescennine  verses  of  the  Romans,  141. 

Fetich  man's  fortune-telling,  101. 

Fiddle  sings,  16,  34. 

Fillmore,  John  C.,  65. 

Finland,  folksongs  of,  5,  7;  racial  re- 
lation of  its  people,  7;  its  Orpheus, 
8;  its  epic,  8;  its  runo  songs,  8. 

Fisk  Jubilee  Singers  and  their  Collec- 
tion, 16,  17,  42,  71,  82,  84,  91,  95. 

Five-four  time,  8. 

Folkdances,  rhythms  of,  6. 

Folksongs  defined,  2;  how  composed, 
3,  4,  23;  parallelisms  between,  14; 
are  the  American  slave  songs  folk- 
songs."*, 26  et  seq.;  of  Sweden,  5; 
Russia,  5;  Norway,  5;  Wallach- 
ia,  5;  Denmark,  5;  Finland,  5; 
Serbs,  7;  Bulgarians,  7;  Montene- 
grins, 7;  Bretons,  9;  Canadians, 
22;  created  by  national  crises,  23. 

Fonda,  57. 

Forten,  Miss  Charlotte  L.,  quoted,  49. 

Foster,  Stephen  C,  16. 

Fourth,  the  interval  omitted,  69,  70. 

Fowler,  Prof.  Henry  T.,  "History  of 
the  Literature  of  Ancient  Israel," 
quoted,  140. 

Freely  go,  marching  along,  87,  88. 

Friedenthal,  Albert,  "Musik,  Tanz 
und  Dichtung  bei  den  Kreolen 
Amerikas,"  quoted,  38,  59,  68, 
93,  114. 

Funeral  music  and  customs,  103  et  seq. 

Gigueiroa,  59. 

Gluck,  Che  faro  senza  Euridice,  57. 

Gottschalk,  his  use  of  a  Creole 
melody,  135. 

Grant,  James  Augustus,  "A  Walk 
Across  Africa,"  quoted,  46,  67. 

Great  Campmeetin\  71,  77,  78,  79. 

Gregorian  Chant,  conservatism  re- 
garding the,  37. 


[  172] 


INDEX— Continued 


Grimm,  on  the  origin  of  folksongs,  3. 

Griots,  38,  143. 

Grout,  the  Rev.  Louis,  "Zulu-Land, 

etc.",  quoted,  lOL 
Grove,    "Dictionary    of    Music    and 

Musicians,"  quoted,  76,  92. 
Guehues,  African  minstrels,  143. 
Guiouba  {or  Juba),  dance,  116. 
Gwine  follow^  15. 

Habanera,  dance,  59,  68,  93,  114,  115. 
Hahn,  Theophilus,  quoted,  58. 
Hallowell,   Miss  Emily,  quoted,  viii, 

71,  82,  91. 

Hampton  Institute  and  Collection  of 
Songs,  21,  30,  42,  91,  97. 

Handel,  Dead  march  in  "Saul,"  44. 

Hard  Trials,  71. 

Harmony  in  African  and  slave  music, 
60,  64,  81. 

Harper  &  Brothers,  acknowledgement 
to,  viii. 

Haskell,  Marion  Alexander,  quoted, 30. 

Haytian  dances,  94. 

Hearn,  Lafcadio,  his  letters,  and 
"Two  Years  in  the  French  West 
Indies,"  quoted,  35,  37,  47,  55,  66, 
121,  125,  134,  135,  141,  144,  145, 
149,  151. 

Heaven  bell  a-ring,  49. 

Hebrew  music,  7. 

Hiawatha,  8. 

Higginson,  Col.  Thomas  Wentworth, 
vi;  quoted,  17,  21,  23,  29,  43,  44, 
45,  49,  50,  109. 

Hill,    Miss   Mildred   J.,   quoted,    32, 

72,  91. 

Hiuen,  Chinese  instrument,  74. 

Holub,  Dr.,  "Seven  Years  in  South 
Africa,"  quoted,  113. 

Hook,  quoted,  93. 

Ho,  round  the  corn,  Sally,  48,  128. 

Hottentots,  singing  of,  58,  60,  61. 

Hughes,  Rupert,"The  MusicalGuide," 
quoted,  2. 

Hungary,  folk-music  of,  87. 

Huss,  Henry  Holden,  acknowledge- 
ment to,  8. 

Iboes,  57. 

Idioms  of  folksongs,  56  et  seq. 

I  Know  Moonlight,  109. 

/  Look  o'er    Yander,  103,  105,    107. 

Pm  gwine  to  Alabamy,  51,  52. 

Imitations  in  songs  of  American 
negroes,   14  et  seq. 

Imitative  capacity  of  negroes,  58. 

In  bright  mansions  above,   16. 

Indians,  American,  their  pentatonic 
scale,  7;  their  songs,  72. 


Influence  of  Negro  music  on  American 
peoples,  59. 

Instruments,  African,  68. 

Intrepides,  Martinique  dancing  so- 
ciety, 145. 

/  saw  the  beam  in  my  sister's  eye,   15. 

Israelitish  taunt  and  triumph  songs, 
141. 

/  want  to  be  my  Fader's  chiVen,   102. 

Jackson,  Miss,  original  Jubilee  sing- 
er, 84. 

Japan,  pentatonic  scale  in,  7. 

Jesus  hear  de  sick,  160. 

Jews,  their  synagogal  music,  7. 

Jim  Crow  songs,  34. 

Jiminez,  pianist,  59. 

Jine  *em,  49. 

Jubilee  Singers  of  Fisk  University. 
(See    FrsK.) 

Jump  Jim  Crow,  16. 

Kaffirs,  music  of  61;  singing  of,  82. 

Kalewala,  Finnish  epic,  8. 

Kantele,  Finnish  harp,  8. 

Kemble,  Mrs.  Frances  Anne,  "Jour- 
nal of  a  Residence  on  a  Georgian 
Plantation,"  46,  154. 

Kidson,  Frank,  on  the  pentatonic 
scale,  76. 

Kolbe,  Peter,  "Caput  Bonae  Spei 
Hodiernum,"  quoted,  60. 

Kolo  dance  of  Servians,  77. 

Korrigan,  10. 

Koundjo,  116  et  seq. 

Kroeger,  Edward  R.,  v. 

Kroomen,  music  of,  57. 

Labat,  Pere,  quoted,  66. 

Laing,  Major  A.  G.,  "Travels  in 
Western  Africa,"  106. 

Language,  forgotten,  36;  corrupted  by 
slaves,  127  et  seq. 

Lashash,    Soudanese   minstrels,    143. 

Lay  this  body  down,  49. 

Leading-tone  (seventh),  84. 

Lewis,  M.  G.,  "A  Journal  of  a  Resi- 
dence among  the  Negroes  of  the 
West  Indies,"  quoted,  25. 

Lily  Dale,  17. 

Lippincott's  Magazine,  quoted,  107. 

Livingstone,  quoted,  121. 

Loema  tombe,   141,  149,   150. 

Longfellow,  "Hiawatha,"  8. 

Lyon,  George  Francis,  "Narrative  of 
Travels  in  Northern  Africa," 
quoted,  46. 

Mabunda,  dance,  113. 
McKim,  Miller,  quoted,  24. 


173  ] 


INDEX— Continued 


McKim,  Miss  Lucy,  quoted,  12,  71. 
McLeod,  Norman,  on  Irish  music,  6. 
Macrum,  W.,  song  quoted,  120. 
Magyars    (Hungarians),    rhj'thm    of 

their  songs,  6;    are   Scythians,    7; 

their  music,  87,  94. 
Mahrchen,  1. 
Major    Mode,    a   symbol   of   gayety, 

4;  in   Russia,  7;  prevalence  of,  5; 

in  negro  songs,  43etsfq.,  variations 

of,  70  et  seq. 
Makalaka,  101. 
Malagasy,  rhythms  of,  97. 
Ma  mourrty  167. 
Manmam  Colette,  Martinique  dance, 

125,  126. 
Manyuema,  dances  of,  113. 
Many  thousand  go,  17,  18. 
Many  thousands  gone,  17,  20. 
Marching  through  Georgia,  23. 
Marie-Clemence,  146,  147. 
Marimba,  68, 
Marriage  forbidden  to  black  Creoles, 

138. 
Marsh,  J.  B.  T.,  "Story  of  the  Jubilee 

Singers,"  42. 
Martinique,  dances,  125,  126, 
Mauch,   Carl,   "Reisen  in   Siid-Afri- 

ka,"  quoted,  101. 
Meens,  57. 
Mees,   Arthur,   credited,   vii;  on  the 

flat  seventh  and  harmony,  79. 
Melancholy  in  folkmusic,  5. 
Mercier,  Dr.   Alfred,  "Etude  sur  la 

Langue     Creole     en     Louisiane," 

quoted,  130  et  seq. 
Meringue,  Haytian  dance,  94. 
Michael  row  the  boat  ashore,  49. 
Michie  Preval,   141,   151,   152. 
Minor  Mode,   a  symbol  of  gravity, 

4;  prevalence,  5;  29,  30;  43  et  seq.; 

70,  83  et  seq.;  sixth  omitted  in  scale, 

70,  84;  leading-tone  in,  84. 
Mixolydian  mode,  77,  79, 
Modes   of   slave   songs    in    America, 

43  et  seq. 
Mohr,  Eduard,  "Nach  den  Victoria- 
fallen  des  Zambesi,"  quoted,  101, 
Moloney,  A,  C,  "Notes  on  Yoruba, 

etc.,"  quoted,  66, 
Moodie,  John  W,  D,,  "Ten  Years  in 

South  Africa,"  mioted,  57, 
Moors,  as  slaves,  57. 
Mother,  is   Massa  gzvine  to  sell  us  to- 
morrow?,   17, 
Moton,  Robert  R.,  30. 
Murphy,   Mrs.  Jeannette  Robinson, 

quoted,  82,  108. 


Musieu  Bainjo,  141,  142. 
Musikalisches  Wochenblatt,  quoted, 

94. 
My    Hearths  in  the    Highlands,  58. 
Nagos,  57. 

"Nation,  The,"  quoted,  33. 
Negroes  in  America,  26,  27;  census 

reports,   27. 
Neve^  a  man  speak  like  this  man,  159. 
Niam-Niam  minstrels,  64,    143. 
Nobody   knows   the   trouble  I  see^  74, 

75,  96,  164, 
Nocturnal  songs  and  dances,  103. 
No  Man,  49, 

No  more  peck  of  corn,  18,  23. 
Norway,  folksongs  of,  5, 

O  du  lieber  Augustin,  58. 
O'er  the  Crossing,  97,  98,  128. 
O  Graveyard,  109,  110. 
O  Haupt  voll  Blut  und  Wunden,  58. 
Oh,  Freedom  over  me,  17. 
0,  Rock  me,  Julie,  51,  52. 
Ole   Virginny  nebber  tire,  15. 
Opon  de  Rock,  162. 
Oriental  scale,  87,  91. 
Ou    beau    di    moin    tete,    Martinique 
dance,  125,  126. 

Paloma,  La,  Mexican  song,  115. 

Parallelisms  between  folksongs,  14. 

Pauv'  ti  Lele,  135. 

Peabody,  Charles,  on  working  songs, 
47. 

Pentatonic  scale,  7,  43,  69,  70,  73 
et  seq. 

Pillard,  satirical  song  of  the  Creoles, 
141  et  seq. 

Pitch,  frequently  vague  in  the  sing- 
ing of  slaves,  70  et  seq. 

Plain-Song,  64, 

Plantation  Life,  influence  of,  22. 

Plato  and  the  sacred  chants  of  the 
Egyptians,  36. 

Plattsburg,  battle  of,  16. 

Poles,  folksongs  of,  87. 

Popos,  57. 

Pov'  piti  Lolotte,  135,  136. 

Praise  Member,  49, 

Proyart,  Abbe,  "History  of  Loango, 
Kakongo,  etc,"  quoted,   107. 

Ragtime,  iii:  2,  6,  48,  92,  93. 

Rain  fall  and  wet  Becky  Martin,  49, 

50. 
Rakoczky  March,  46,  87. 
Ranz  des  Vaches  prohibited,  46. 
Reade,  W,   Winwood,  "The  African 

Sketchbook,"  quoted,  47. 
Recitative  in  African  song,  100  et  seq. 


I  174] 


INDEX— Continued 


"Reel  Tunes,"  16. 

Reid,    Ogden    Mills,    Editor  of  the 

N.  Y.  Tribune,  acknowledgements 

to,  viii. 
Religion  and  music,  9,  29. 
Religion  so  sweet,  49. 
Religious  character  of  the  plantation 

folksongs,  42. 
Remoiiy  Remon,  122. 
Rhythm  and  rhythmical  distortions, 

6,95. 
Rhyvelgyrck  Cadpen  Morgan,  10,  169. 
Rice,  "Daddy,"  16. 
Richardson,  the  Rev.  J.,  quoted,  97. 
River,  roustabout  and  rowing  songs, 

34,  48,  49,  51. 
Roche,  Louise,  38,  39. 
Roll,  Jordan,  roll,  102,  165. 
Romaika,  33. 
Roosevelt,  Theodore,  92. 
Root,  George  F.,    The  Battle-Cry  of 

Freedom,  17. 
Round  about  the  mountain,  63. 
Runo  songs  of  the  Finns,  8. 
Russell,  W.  H.,    "My  Diary,  North 

and  South,"  quoted.  111. 
Russia,  folksongs  of,  5;  influence  of 

suffering,  6;  dances,  6. 

Saint-Cast,  Battle  of,  9,  169. 
Salas,  Brindis  de,  59. 
Sanko,  African  instrument,  62. 
Sanskrit  prayers  in  China,  36. 
Sans-Souci,  Martinique  dancing  so- 
ciety, 145. 
Satire  in  songs  of  the  Creoles,  140 

et  seq. 
Scales,  origin  of,  91;  Oriental,  91. 
Schauenburg,    "Reisen    in    Central- 

Afrika,"  quoted,  66. 
Schweinfurth,  Dr.  Georg,  "Heart  of 

Afrika,"  quoted,  64,  113. 
Scotch  songs,  83. 
Second,   the  augmented  interval  in 

folksongs,  7,  84. 
Secular    songs,    paucity    of,    among 

American  slave  songs,  28,  34. 
Serbs,    augmented    second    in    their 

music,  7. 
"Settin*  up"  in  the  Bahamas,  107. 
Seventh   (interval),   flatted,   69,   70, 

71;    omitted,    69,    70;    raised    to 

leading-tone  in  minor,  69. 
Seward,  Theodore  F.,  42,  95. 
Shamans    of    the    North    American 

Indians,  107. 
Shock  along,  John,  48. 
"Shout"  and  "Shouting,"  32  et  seq.; 

95,  106,  109,  112. 


Sibree,  the  Rev.  James  W.,  quoted, 

97. 
Sierra  Leone,  singing  of  the  negroes 
in,  44,  60. 

Silcher,  Friedrich,  Zu  Strassburg  auf 
der  Schanz,  2;  Ich  tveiss  nicht,  was 
soil  es  bedeuten,  2. 

Sixth  (interval),  major  in  minor 
scales,  69,  70,  81,  84;  omitted,  69, 
84. 

Slavery  in  America,  36,  56  et  seq. 

Slaves,  American,  not  all  negroes,  56. 

"Slave  Songs  of  the  United  States" 
(collection),  vi,  16,  17,  26,  29,  32, 
34,  42,  43,  48,  49,  50,  53,  71,  81, 
91,97,  100,  109,  116,  121,  138. 

Smith,  Captain  John,  on  rattles  in 
Virginia,   13. 

Snap  (Scots',  Scotch,  Scottish,  etc.), 
6,  48,  68,  83,  92  et  seq.,  135. 

Socos,  57. 

Some  come  cripple,  158. 

Soyaux,  Hermann,  "Aus  West-Afri- 
ka,"  quoted,  44,  60. 

Spanish  melody  on  African  rhythm,  83. 

Spaulding,  H.  G.,  credit,  vi;  "Under 
the  Palmetto,"  quoted,  12,  17,  43. 

Spencer,  Herbert,  his  theory  on  the 
origin  of  music,  3,  4,  29. 

Spirituals,  16. 

Spohr,  Louis,  on  intervals  in  folk- 
song, 72. 

Squire,  Irving,  "American  History 
and  Encyclopaedia  of  Music," 
quoted,  47. 

Strathspey  reel,  92. 

Structural  forms  of  the  Afro-Ameri- 
can folksongs,  100  et  seq. 

Suffering,  provocative  of  folksong,  4. 

Sweden,  folksongs  of,  5. 

Take  him  to  the  gully,  24. 

Tango,  93,  114. 

Tant  sirop  est  doux,  116,  117. 

Tiersot,  Julien,  his  monograph  on 
American  folksongs,  quoted,  vi, 
32,  35,  36,  84,  135,  138. 

Tomlinson,  Reuben,  SO. 

To,  to,  to,  166. 

Tramp,  tramp,  tramp,  23. 

Tribune,  New  York  newspaper,  cre- 
dited, iii,  iv. 

Triple  time  in  negro  songs,  95. 

Trowbridge,  Col.,  quoted,  50. 

Tschaikowsky,  "Pathetic"  symphony, 
8.^ 

Turiault,  "Etude  sur  la  Langue 
Creole,"  quoted,  40. 

Turkey-trot,  93,  114. 


[175] 


INDEX— Continued 


Valdez,  Francisco  Travassos,  "Six 
Years  of  a  Traveler's  Life  in  West- 
ern Africa,"  quoted,  106. 

Van  Broekhoven,  John  A.,  acknow- 
ledgements to,  viii. 

Variations  from  conventional  scales, 
68. 

Villemarque,  Th.  Her&art  de  la, 
Barzaz-Breizy  9. 

Volkslied,  1. 

Volksthiimliches  Lied,  1. 

Vologeso,  Italian  opera,  92. 

Voodoo  songs,  35,  37,  40,  67. 

Wachtel,  Dr.  Aurel,  quoted,  74. 

Wagner,  Nibelung  rhythm  in  Africa, 
58. 

Wainamoinen,  Finnish  Orpheus,  8. 

Waltz,  Theodor,  "Anthropologie  der 
Naturvolker,"  106. 

Wallachia,  folksongs  of,  5. 

Wallaschek,  Dr.  Richard,  "Primi- 
tive Music,'*  11;  his  arguments 
traversed,  11  ^/  seq.;  a  careless  in- 
vestigator, 12;  46,  47,  57,  58,  59, 
60,  115,  121. 

Wangemann,  Dr.,  82. 

Ware,  Charles  Pickard,  49. 

Washington,  Booker  T.,  vi,  47. 

Wearing  of  the  Green,  16. 

Weber,  Carl  Maria  von,  fFir  winden 
dir,  2. 


Weber,    Ernst  von,   "Vier  Jahre  in 

Afrika,"  quoted,  101. 
Weeping  Mary,  80,  81,  157. 
Weissmann,  Hermann,  "Unter  deut- 

scher  Flagge  durch  Afrika,"  quoted, 

67. 
We'll  soon  be  free,  21. 
Welsh  and  Bretons,  9,  10. 
Wentworth,  the  Rev.  Dr.,  76. 
Wesley,  the  Rev.  John,  on  the  Devil 

and  good  tunes,  34. 
White,  George   L.,   manager  of  the 

Jubiles  Singers,  42,  82. 
White,  Jose,  violinist,  59. 
Who  is  on  the  Lord's  side?y  16. 
Whole-tone  scale,  51. 
Wood,  J.  Muir,  72. 
Woodville,  Jenny,  quoted,  107. 
Working  songs  of  the  slaves,  46  et  seq. 
Wulsin,  Mrs.,  her  copy  of  an  Acadian 

song,  51. 

You  may  bury  me  in  the  east,  31, 

84,  86. 

Zanze,  African  Instrument,  61,  68,  74. 
Ziehn,    Bernhard,   "Harmonielehre," 

quoted,  81. 
Zip  Coon,  15. 

Zoellner,  Heinrlch,  quoted,  77, 
Zombi,  40. 

Zulu-Kafirs,  songs  of,  101. 
Zuni  Indians,  singing  of,  72. 


r  i7<  ] 


